Skip to main content

Relativistic Covariance of Electrodynamics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 4748 Accesses

Part of the book series: Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics ((ULNP))

Abstract

The Maxwell equations accounted for all the electricity and magnetism phenomena and predicted the electromagnetic waves but were in contrast with the Galileian relativity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For two inertial frames \(S^{\prime }\) and S related by a Galileian transformation:

    $$ x^{\prime }=x-vt \qquad y^{\prime }=y \qquad z^{\prime }=z \qquad t^{\prime }=t $$
    $$ x=x^{\prime }+vt^{\prime } \qquad y=y^{\prime } \qquad z=z^{\prime } \qquad t=t^{\prime } $$
    $$ {{\partial ~}\over {\partial x^{\prime }}}={{\partial ~}\over {\partial x}} \qquad {{\partial ~}\over {\partial t^{\prime }}}={{\partial ~}\over {\partial t}}+v{{\partial ~}\over {\partial x}} $$
    $$ {{\partial ^2~}\over {\partial {x^{\prime }}^2}}-{1 \over c^2}{{\partial ^2~}\over {\partial {t^{\prime }}^2}}=0 \quad \rightarrow \quad \left( 1-{v^2 \over c^2}\right) {{\partial ^2~}\over {\partial x^2}}-{1 \over c^2}{{\partial ^2~}\over {\partial t^2}}-2v{{\partial ~}\over {\partial x}}{{\partial ~}\over {\partial t}}=0\,. $$
  2. 2.

    For more details see for instance J.D. Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics, cited, Chap. 11.

  3. 3.

    In the frame of the magnet the electromotive force can be explained with the Lorentz force acting on the charges inside the loop and moving with the loop in the field of the magnet. In the frame of the loop the Lorentz force cannot act because the loop is at rest and the electromotive force is associated to the rate of change of the magnetic flux enclosed by the circuit. In relativity this incoherence is removed because an electric field arises from the transformation of the magnetic field of the magnet to the loop reference frame.

  4. 4.

    A. Einstein: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.

  5. 5.

    This subject can be found in many Electrodynamics textbooks as for instance L.D. Landau-E.M. Lifšits, The classical theory of fields, Chapters III and IV, or J.D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, cited, Chap. 11. In these two books with an introduction to the theory of relativity, the Kinematics and the Dynamics are also considered.

  6. 6.

    In this simple case the Lorentz transformations are:

    $$ ct^{\prime }=(ct-\beta x)\gamma \qquad x^{\prime }=(x-vt)\gamma \qquad y^{\prime }=y \qquad z^{\prime }=z \qquad \beta ={v \over c} \qquad \gamma = {1 \over {\sqrt{1-\beta ^2}}}.$$
  7. 7.

    The vector equation exists by itself in the space and of course it is independent from the frame. When considering the equation in a frame we take the projections of both members of the vector equation along the three axes of the frame. The projections are different in the different frames but the vector equation is the same, it is therefore written in covariant form.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francesco Lacava .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Lacava, F. (2016). Relativistic Covariance of Electrodynamics. In: Classical Electrodynamics. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39474-9_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics