We analyse the behaviour of the spectrum of the system of Maxwell equations of electromagnetism, with rapidly oscillating periodic coefficients, subject to periodic boundary conditions on a “macroscopic” domain $(0,T)^{3},T>0.$ We consider the case where the contrast between the values of the coefficients in different parts of their periodicity cell increases as the period of oscillations $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$ goes to zero. We show that the limit of the spectrum as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}\rightarrow 0$ contains the spectrum of a “homogenized” system of equations that is solved by the limits of sequences of eigenfunctions of the original problem. We investigate the behaviour of this system and demonstrate phenomena not present in the scalar theory for polarized waves.

Let $I_{s,k,r}(X)$ denote the number of integral solutions of the modified Vinogradov system of equations

$$\begin{eqnarray}x_{1}^{j}+\cdots +x_{s}^{j}=y_{1}^{j}+\cdots +y_{s}^{j}\quad (1\leqslant j\leqslant k,\;j\neq r),\end{eqnarray}$$

$1\leqslant x_{i},y_{i}\leqslant X\;(1\leqslant i\leqslant s)$

$I_{s,k,r}(X)$

$1\leqslant r\leqslant k-1$

$s,k\in \mathbb{N}$

$k\geqslant 3$

$1\leqslant s\leqslant (k^{2}-1)/2$

$I_{s,k,1}(X)\ll X^{s+\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}$

We consider an elliptic self-adjoint first-order differential operator $L$ acting on pairs (2-columns) of complex-valued half-densities over a connected compact three-dimensional manifold without boundary. The principal symbol of the operator $L$ is assumed to be trace-free and the subprincipal symbol is assumed to be zero. Given a positive scalar weight function, we study the weighted eigenvalue problem for the operator $L$ . The corresponding counting function (number of eigenvalues between zero and a positive $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}$ ) is known to admit, under appropriate assumptions on periodic trajectories, a two-term asymptotic expansion as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}\rightarrow +\infty$ and we have recently derived an explicit formula for the second asymptotic coefficient. The purpose of this paper is to establish the geometric meaning of the second asymptotic coefficient. To this end, we identify the geometric objects encoded within our eigenvalue problem—metric, non-vanishing spinor field and topological charge—and express our asymptotic coefficients in terms of these geometric objects. We prove that the second asymptotic coefficient of the counting function has the geometric meaning of the massless Dirac action.

We study the system of Maxwell equations for a periodic composite dielectric medium with components whose dielectric permittivities ${\it\epsilon}$ have a high degree of contrast between each other. We assume that the ratio between the permittivities of the components with low and high values of ${\it\epsilon}$ is of the order ${\it\eta}^{2}$, where ${\it\eta}>0$ is the period of the medium. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of the electromagnetic response of such a medium in the “homogenization limit”, as ${\it\eta}\rightarrow 0$, and derive the limit system of Maxwell equations in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Our results extend a number of conclusions of a paper by Zhikov [On gaps in the spectrum of some divergent elliptic operators with periodic coefficients. St. Petersburg Math. J.16(5) (2004), 719–773] to the case of the full system of Maxwell equations.