On the constitutive relations of linear insulating media and related magnetoelectric effects

Abstract General symmetry considerations are used to establish the type of constitutive relations that characterize the electromagnetic response of a material with a given magnetic point group. For clarity, the constitutive relations are generalized to explicitly include two additional secondary vector fields related to the magneto- and the electro-toroidal moments. Local energy conservation, as expressed by the Poynting-Heaviside theorem, is invoked to constrain the structure of the possible material tensors. In this way, the different types of non-dissipative materials with local interactions can be classified according to the different electromagnetic effects that are allowed by their magnetic point group symmetry. The electromagnetic response of some selected materials, chosen for illustrative purposes, is briefly discussed.