Radiation forces and torques without stress (tensors)

To understand radiation forces and torques or to calculate them does not require invoking photon or electromagnetic field momentum transfer or stress tensors. According to continuum electromagnetic theory, forces and torques exerted by radiation are a consequence of electric and magnetic fields acting on charges and currents that the fields induce within illuminated objects. This can be shown directly by deriving the radiation force and torque resulting from normal-incidence illumination of a planar interface between free space and an arbitrary medium. Every point of the medium contributes to the total force and torque, which are therefore not localized.