Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule in the presence of multiple scattering: Derivation and accuracy

We give a rigorous and original derivation of the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule in the dynamical regime for a composite dielectric random medium with small spherical inclusions. For certain configurations of scatterers, we show that contrarily to the common belief, the Maxwell-Garnett formula can remain very accurate at a high concentration of scatterers and incorporate multiple-scattering effects as well as attenuation of the mean field. We provide a realistic numerical example for which this is the case.