Introduction to Mathematical Physics/Electromagnetism/Electromagnetic interaction

Electromagnetic forces

Postulates of electromagnetism have to be completed by another postulate that deals with interactions:

Postulate:

In the case of a charged particle of charge $q$ , Electromagnetic force applied to this particle is:

f=qE+qv\wedge B

where $qE$ is the electrical force (or Coulomb force) \index{Coulomb force} and $qv\wedge B$ is the Lorentz force. \index{Lorentz force}

This result can be generalized to continuous media using Poynting vector.\index{Poynting vector}

secenergemag

Electromagnetic energy, Poynting vector

Previous postulate using forces can be replaced by a "dual" postulate that uses energies:

Postulate:

Consider a volume $V$ . The vector $P=E\wedge H$ is called Poynting vector. It is postulated that flux of vector $P$ trough surface $S$ delimiting volume $V$ , oriented by a entering normal is equal to the Electromagnetic power ${\mathcal {P}}$ given to this volume.

Using Green's theorem, ${\mathcal {P}}$ can be written as:

{\mathcal {P}}=\int \!\!\!\int E\wedge Hnds=-\int \!\!\!\int \!\!\!\int {\mbox{ div }}(E\wedge H)d\tau

which yields, using Maxwell equations to:

{\mathcal {P}}=\int \!\!\!\int \!\!\!\int H{\frac {\partial B}{\partial t}}+E.j+E{\frac {\partial D}{\partial t}}d\tau

Two last postulates are closely related. In fact we will show now that they basically say the same thing (even if Poynting vector form can be seen a bit more general).

Consider a point charge $q$ in a field $E$ . Let us move this charge of $dr$ . Previous postulated states that to this displacement corresponds a variation of internal energy:

\delta U=\int E\delta Dd\tau

where $dD$ is the variation of $D$ induced by the charge displacement.

Theorem:

Internal energy variation is:

\delta U=-f\delta r

where $f$ is the electrical force applied to the charge.

Proof:

In the static case, $E$ field has conservative circulation ( ${\mbox{ rot }}E=0$ ) so it derives from a potential. \medskip Let us write energy conservation equation:

\delta U=\int E\delta Dd\tau

\delta U=\int -{\mbox{ grad }}(V)\delta Dd\tau

\delta U=\int V{\mbox{ div }}(\delta D)d\tau -\int {\mbox{ div }}(V\delta D)d\tau

Flow associated to divergence of $V\delta D$ is zero in all the space, indeed $D$ decreases as $1/r^{2}$ and $V$ as $1/r$ and surface increases as $r^{2}$ . So:

\delta U=\int V\delta \rho d\tau

Let us move charge of $\delta r$ . Charge distribution goes from $q\delta (r)$ to $q\delta (r+dr)$ where $\delta (r)$ is Dirac distribution. We thus have $d\rho (r)=q(\delta (r+\delta r)-\delta (r))$ . So: