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Field Tensor

Maxwell's equations can be summarized using the electromagnetic field tensor Fμν. (1) The homogeneous Maxwell's equations are written as ∂μ Fνσ + ∂σ Fμν + ∂ν Fσμ = 0. (2) The inhomogeneous Maxwell's equations are written in terms of the four-current Jμ as ∂ν Fμν = Jμ/ε0. (3) The Lorentz force law on a charge q is written as dpμ/dτ = qFμν uν, where pμ is the four-momentum and uν is the four-velocity.

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62 views

Field Tensor

Maxwell's equations can be summarized using the electromagnetic field tensor Fμν. (1) The homogeneous Maxwell's equations are written as ∂μ Fνσ + ∂σ Fμν + ∂ν Fσμ = 0. (2) The inhomogeneous Maxwell's equations are written in terms of the four-current Jμ as ∂ν Fμν = Jμ/ε0. (3) The Lorentz force law on a charge q is written as dpμ/dτ = qFμν uν, where pμ is the four-momentum and uν is the four-velocity.

Uploaded by

Abhishek Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS USING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC

FIELD TENSOR

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References: Amitabha Lahiri & P. B. Pal, A First Book of Quantum Field
Theory, Second Edition (Alpha Science International, 2004) - Chapter 1,
Problem 1.7.
Post date: 25 Nov 2015.
We can summarize the electromagnetic field in tensor form by means of
the field tensor
 
0 −Ex −Ey −Ez
 Ex 0 Bz −By 
Fµν =   Ey −Bz
 (1)
0 Bx 
Ez By −Bx 0
[This tensor is written using relativistic units with c = 1 so that E and B
have the same dimensions.]
We’ve already seen that the pair of homogeneous Maxwell’s equations
can be written in terms of this tensor as follows:

∂µ Fνσ + ∂σ Fµν + ∂ν Fσµ = 0 (2)


With the usual ordering of coordinates x0 , x1 , x2 , x 3

= (t, x, y, z), if we
set µ = 2, ν = 1 and σ = 3 we get

−∂y By − ∂z Bz − ∂x Bx = 0 (3)
∇·B = 0 (4)
Selecting µ = 2, ν = 1 and σ = 0 gives

∂y Ex − ∂t Bz − ∂x Ey = 0 (5)
This is the z component of

∂B
∇×E+ =0 (6)
∂t
We can get the x component by choosing µ = 0, ν = 2 and σ = 3:

∂t Bx − ∂z Ey + ∂y Ez = 0 (7)
1
MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS USING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD TENSOR 2

The y component comes from µ = 0, ν = 1 and σ = 3:

− ∂t By − ∂z Ex + ∂x Ez = 0 (8)
The two inhomogenous Maxwell’s equations are

ρ
∇·E = (9)
0
∂E
∇ × B = µ0 J + µ0 0 (10)
 ∂t
1 J ∂E
= 2 + (11)
c 0 ∂t
J ∂E
= + (12)
0 ∂t
where we used µ0 0 = 1/c2 and the last line uses relativistic units with
c = 1.
We need to introduce the four-current to put these in four-vector form.
This is

J µ = [ρ, J] (13)
where ρ is the charge density and J is the three-current. Then if we look
at Gauss’s law 9 we see that this can be written as

J0
∂ν F 0ν = (14)
0
where F µν is the raised version of the tensor
 
0 Ex Ey Ez
 −Ex 0 Bz −By 
F µν =  −Ey −Bz
 (15)
0 Bx 
−Ez By −Bx 0
If we generalize this formula we get

Jµ
∂ν F µν = (16)
0
For µ = 1 we get

Jx
− ∂t Ex + ∂y Bz − ∂z By = (17)
0
This is the x component of 12. Choosing µ = 2 and µ = 3 give the y and
z components respectively.
MAXWELL’S EQUATIONS USING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD TENSOR 3

From our examination of the electromagnetic tensor, we saw the four-


vector form of the Lorentz force law for a charge q:
dpµ
= qF µν uν (18)
dτ
where τ is the proper time, pµ is the four-momentum and uν is the four-
velocity.
To summarize, Maxwell’s equations can be written as

∂µ Fνσ + ∂σ Fµν + ∂ν Fσµ = 0 (19)


µν Jµ
∂ν F = (20)
0
The Lorentz force law can be written as
dpµ
= qF µν uν (21)
dτ
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