On the multi-frequency electromagnetic emission from a rotating charged dielectric disk made of isotropic media: A verification of Maxwell’s equations for a mechano-driven medium system

The electromagnetic behavior of a uniformly moving medium has been traditionally described by Minkowski’s theory, based on which the electromagnetic (EM) emission from a rotating isotropic medium should be linear with the rotation frequency, which means that the frequency of the EM emission should be the same as that of the excitation source. However, we experimentally observed that the near-field EM emission from a rotating charged dielectric disk shows discrete multi-harmonics at frequencies of nfR, with n = 1–6, where fR is the rotation frequency of the disk. By reversing the rotating direction of the disk, the phase shift for the observed magnetic field is π for odd harmonics, but it remains in phase for the even harmonics. The experimental results may not be consistent with Minkowski’s theory, but the data can be well explained using Maxwell’s equations for a mechano-driven media system (MEs-f-MDMS). This study not only provides a solid proof to MEs-f-MDMS but also establishes the theory for describing the near-field EM emission from accelerated medium motion, which has many engineering applications.