Detection of the Abraham force with a succession of short optical pulses

For over a century, two rival descriptions of electromagnetic field momentum in matter have coexisted, due to Abraham and Minkowski, respectively. We propose a setup for measuring the difference between Abraham's and Minkowski's predictions in optics. To wit, a setup is proposed in which the transient Abraham force, a consequence of the Abraham energy-momentum tensor of 1909, may be measured directly. We show that when a train of short laser pulses is sent through a fiber wound up on a cylindrical drum, the Abraham theory predicts a torque, which, by inserting realistic parameters, is found to be detectable. Indeed, the same torque when calculated with the Minkowski tensor takes the opposite sign. Numerical estimates show that with a typical torsion pendulum setup and standard laser parameters, the angular deflection is in the order of 10(-3) rad, which is easily measurable and even visible to the naked eye. Although its prediction is a century old, the Abraham force has proven experimentally elusive, and to our knowledge no macroscopic experimental demonstration of the difference between the predictions of the two mentioned energy-momentum tensors exists at optical frequencies.