Friday, March 27, 2015

electromagnetism - How to prove the following relation H=fracEtimesvc



Using CGS units, how can we prove the following relation H=E×vc

where H is magnetic field, E is electric field and v is velocity



Answer



What you have here is basically the B-field seen in the frame of a charge with velocity v, moving in an electric field that is Ev. You can derive this expression by considering the relativistic field transformations of E and B in a moving frame, I'll only show you the most important steps, for a complete walkthrough see chapter 26 of Feynman Lectures Vol. 2. Starting with the magnetic field B expressed in terms of the vector potential A,: B=×A, with the four-vectors in component being(using the short notation for partials): μ=(t,x,y,z)Aμ=(ϕ,Ax,Ay,Az) where ϕ=At


Now we can write the outer product results for B, to simplify we use a short-hand term like By=Fxz=zAxxAz, which in a generalized form is: Fμν=μAννAμ


Next we Lorentz transform the Fμν tensors, e.g. for Fxy we have: Fxy=FxyvFty1v2/c2

for shortness I will only write the magnetic field terms: Bx=BxBy=By+vEz1v2/c2Bz=BzvEy1v2/c2
With these transformations you can now calculate the B-field in a moving frame (with speed v here). In order to get closer to your expression, we still have to express these in terms of vector products, for this we assume the velocity vector is directed in the positive x-direction, so you can e.g. rewrite By+vEz as the y-component of (Bv×E)y, and so on so forth. Finally we just rewrite everything in terms of (to v) and components, with the field components along x-axis being the parallel ones and y,z the perpendicular ones. With the parallel terms being same in either frames, we have for the term (with γ the Lorentz factor): B=γ(Bv×Ec2)


From here, if you consider the special case of having no B-field in the rest frame, i.e. B=0, then the perpendicular components of B as seen in the moving charge's frame is: B=γv×Ec2

Now absorb the Lorentz factor in E and rewrite it as a prime term, then remove the minus sign by using the anticommutative property of vector products and you're done.


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