Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-i-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/1/e/solution

The constants specify isotropic, nondispersive linear response: controls electric polarization, and controls magnetization. Their numerical relation to conventional electric susceptibility and magnetic susceptibility depends on the signs and field normalization in the action. In the rationalized units used here, the printed action gives the constitutive relations
Thus its relative permittivity and magnetic permeability are
Here conventional is defined by , not by . With the alternative repaired action that yields the PDF's target equation, is unchanged but and . In particular, a positive conventional electric susceptibility corresponds to negative in the printed conventions; the problem does not specify signs for these constants.

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