FARADAY-ROTATION AND COMPLEX-VALUED TRAVERSAL TIME FOR CLASSICAL LIGHT WAVES

We introduce a magnetic clock approach to measure the traversal and re flection times of an electromagnetic wave through a slab, when multipl e reflections are taken into account. The traversal time is a complex quantity whose real component is proportional to the Faraday rotation and whose imaginary component is proportional to the degree of ellipti city. We conclude that the complex traversal time found for an electro n by several different methods is not a consequence of the quantum nat ure of the particle, but due to the wavelike character of the entity i nvolved.