NEAR DIPOLE-DIPOLE EFFECTS IN DENSE MEDIA - GENERALIZED MAXWELL-BLOCH EQUATIONS

A self-consistent generalization of the Maxwell-Bloch formulation is presented here for a nonlinear system of saturable two-level atoms interacting with the electromagnetic field, under the condition that the atomic density is such that there are, on the average, many atoms within a cubic resonance wave-length such that near-dipole-dipole interactions, which lead to local-field corrections, cannot be neglected.