  The refractive index of a dielectric medium comprising both passive and
inverted components in its permittivity was determined using two methods: (i)
in the time domain, a finite-difference algorithm to compute the
frequency-domain reflectance from reflection data for a pulsed plane wave that
is normally incident on a dielectric half-space, and (ii) in the frequency
domain, the deflection of an obliquely incident Gaussian beam on transmission
through a dielectric slab. The dielectric medium was found to be an active
medium with a negative real part for its refractive index. Thereby, a recent
controversy in the scientific literature was resolved.
