On the boundary-value problems and the validity of the Post constraint in modern electromagnetism

Understand

We recall that the theory of electromagnetism consists of three building blocks: (a) the inhomogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic excitations $(D,H)$ (which reflects charge conservation), (b) the homogeneous Maxwell equations for the electric and magnetic field strengths $(E,B)$ (which reflects flux conservation), and (c) the constitutive relation between $(D,H)$ and $(E,B)$.

• In the recent paper \cite{Lakhtakia1}, Lakhtakia proposed to change the standard boundary conditions in electrodynamics in order to exclude certain constitutive parameters.
• We show that this is inadmissible both from the macroscopic and the microscopic points of view.