A Derivation of the Macroscopic Maxwell Equations

Abstract

We derive the macroscopic Maxwell equations from the microscopic equations of electrodynamics. The method is based on a modified version of spatial averaging and unifies several past approaches. For simplicity, the derivation presented here is restricted to classical systems, although it may easily be extended to incorporate quantum mechanical systems.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1119/1.1976000

Citations and references