Thursday, March 8, 2018

electromagnetism - Does gravity affect magnetism, vice-versa, or do they "ignore" each other?


I am suddenly struck by the question of whether gravitation affects magnetism in some way. On the other hand, gravity is a weak force, but magnetism seems to be a strong force, so would magnetism affect gravity?



Or do they "ignore" each other, being forces which do not interact?


The answer to this is related to this question: If the earth's core were to cool so that it were no longer liquid, no longer rotated, and thus produced no magnetic field, would this do anything to earth's gravity?



Answer



The electromagnetic field tensor $F_{\mu\nu}$ which encodes all the information about the electric and magnetic field, certainly contributes to the energy-stress tensor $T_{\mu\nu}$, which appears in the Einstein Field Equations: $$G_{\mu\nu}= 8\pi G T_{\mu\nu}$$ The left hand side of this equation encodes the geometry of spacetime, while the right hand side describes the 'sources' of gravity. Therefore, we can say that magnetism does have an effect on the geometry of spacetime i.e. gravity.


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