Abstract
The electromagnetic field in a linear, inhomogeneous, isotropic, and nonmagnetic dielectric is considered. It is shown that the vectorial wave equation for the electric field can apparently be derived on the basis of a principle of minimum divergence of the field. It is argued that this principle is preferable to the recently suggested method of obtaining the scalar wave equation by a principle of minimum Fisher information.
© 1991 Optical Society of America
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