Universal description for different types of polarization radiation

When a charged particle moves nearby a spatially inhomogeneous condensed medium or inside it, different types of radiation may arise: Diffraction radiation (DR), Smith-Purcell radiation (SPR), Transition radiation (TR), Cherenkov radiation (CR) etc. Along with transverse waves of radiation, the charged particle may also generate longitudinal oscillations. We show that all these phenomena may be described via quite simple and universal approach, where the source of the field is the polarization current density induced inside the medium by external field of the particle, that is direct proof of the physical equivalence of all these radiation processes. Exact solution for one of the basic radiation problems is found with this method: emission of a particle passing through a cylindrical channel in a screen of arbitrary width and permittivity $\epsilon (\omega) = \epsilon^{\prime} + i \epsilon^{\prime \prime}$. Depending on geometry, the formula for radiated energy obtained describes different types of polarization radiation: DR, TR and CR. The particular case of radiation produced by the particle crossing axially the sharp boundary between vacuum and a plasma cylinder of finite radius is also considered. The problem of SPR generated when the particle moves nearby a set of thin rectangular strips (grating) is solved for the arbitrary value of the grating's permittivity. An exact solution of Maxwell's equations for the fields of polarization current density suitable at the arbitrary distances (including the so-called pre-wave zone) is presented. This solution is shown to describe transverse fields of polarization radiation and the longitudinal fields connected with the zeros of permittivity.