Electrodynamics

Masud Chaichian Ioan Merches

•

Daniel Radu Anca Tureanu

•

Electrodynamics
An Intensive Course

123
Masud Chaichian Daniel Radu
Department of Physics Faculty of Physics
University of Helsinki Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
Helsinki Iasi
Finland Romania

Ioan Merches Anca Tureanu

Faculty of Physics Department of Physics
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University University of Helsinki
Iasi Helsinki
Romania Finland

ISBN 978-3-642-17380-6 ISBN 978-3-642-17381-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-17381-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016945104

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

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The grand aim of all science is to cover the
greatest number of empirical facts by logical
deduction from the smallest number
of hypotheses or axioms.

Albert Einstein
Preface

Electrodynamics is the unified description of electric and magnetic phenomena, in

terms of the electromagnetic field, conceived as carrier of energy. This study can be
performed in two ways: either phenomenologically, for media at rest or moving
slowly as compared to the speed of light, or in a relativistically-covariant form, for
any possible speed. As a matter of fact, electrodynamics is intrinsically linked to the
theory of relativity. Terms like “non-relativistic” or “relativistic” electrodynamics
are meaningless, since the two approaches differ only by the mathematical for-
malism and not in a deep conceptual way. As the reader will further learn, the
theory of relativity appeared and developed within the study of the electrodynamics
of moving media, allowing us to state that electrodynamics is relativistic.
The above two possible ways of describing the electromagnetic phenomena
represent the basis of the structure of this book. The pedagogical principle of
moving from simple to complex, in strong connection with the chronological order
of the elaboration of theories, has also been respected.
The first part of the book contains five chapters devoted to the basic principles,
fundamental notions and the laws of electrostatics, the theory of stationary currents,
the equations of the electromagnetic field, the generation and propagation of the
electromagnetic waves, as well as to a border discipline, the magnetofluid
dynamics.
The second part consists of three chapters. As soon as the experimental basis and
the principles of the theory of relativity are given, the reader gets familiar with the
fundamental consequences of the Lorentz transformations. Next, the analytical and
tensor formalisms are used in the relativistically-covariant formulation of the fun-
damental phenomena of mechanics and electrodynamics.
The third part concludes with an introduction to the general theory of relativity,
with application to the general-relativistic study of the electromagnetic field.
The book also contains six appendices, whose purpose is to provide the reader
with the fundamentals of the necessary mathematics used in the book: tensor cal-
culus, Dirac’s delta function, the Green function method, differential operators in
various coordinate systems, etc.

vii
viii Preface

This book is intended for both undergraduate and graduate students who have
physics as major subject. Since any general course in physics should contain a
chapter regarding the theory of the electromagnetic field, it can also be used by
those studying engineering, mathematics, chemistry, astrophysics, and related
subjects. There are only few disciplines whose applicability can be compared to that
of electrodynamics. Practically, all electric and electronic devices used around the
world work on the basis of the laws of electromagnetism.
The electromagnetic field theory has special harmony and beauty, fully con-
firming the statement “Great truths are simple”. Indeed, it was Maxwell, one of the
greatest physicists of all times, who succeeded in creating the first unified
description of electric and magnetic phenomena by his famous system of equations.
Maxwell’s theory contained intrinsically also the relativistic invariance of the
special relativity, a fact which was discovered only a few decades later. Nowadays,
the attempts and successes in unifying all the known forces (except the gravitational
one) in Nature into a single theory, the so-called grand unified theory (GUT), or
further developments which include also the gravitational force, such as string
theory, in essence have the same aim. It is worthwhile to mention that, chrono-
logically speaking, the electromagnetic field was also the first one to be quantized,
by Paul Dirac in 1927. This achievement initiated the development of one of the
most efficient theoretical tools in all physical disciplines, the quantum theory of
fields.
This book is the outcome of the authors’ lectures and teaching experiences over
many years in different countries and for students of diverse fields of physics,
engineering, and applied mathematics. The authors believe that the presentation and
the distribution of the topics, the various applications presented in different areas
and the set of solved and proposed problems, make this book a comprehensive tool
for students and researchers.
During the preparation of this book, the authors have benefited from discussing
various topics with many of their colleagues and students. It is a pleasure to express
our deep gratitude to all of them and to acknowledge the stimulating discussions
and their useful advice.

October 2016 Masud Chaichian

Ioan Merches
Daniel Radu
Anca Tureanu
Contents

Part I Electrodynamics: Phenomenological Approach

1 Electrostatic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Electrostatic Field in Vacuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Coulomb’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Charge Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 Electrostatic Field Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.4 Field Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.1.5 Flux of the Electrostatic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.1.6 Electrostatic Field Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1.7 Equipotential Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1.8 Equations of the Electrostatic Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1.9 Electrostatic Field Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.1.10 Electrostatic Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.1.11 Electrostatic Multipoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.2 Electrostatic Field in Polarized Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.2.1 Dielectric Polarization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.2.2 Gauss’s Law for Dielectric Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.2.3 Types of Dielectrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.2.4 Jump Conditions for the Components
of the Fields E and D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 30
1.3 Special Methods of Solving Problems in Electrostatics . . . . .... 33
1.3.1 Method of Electric Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 34
1.3.2 Integration of the Laplace Equation by the Method
of Separation of Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 41
1.3.3 Two-Dimensional Electrostatic Problems
and Conformal Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 47
1.4 Mechanical Action of the Electrostatic Field on Dielectric
Media. Electrostriction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 53
1.5 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 58
1.6 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 74

ix
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2 Fields of Stationary Currents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

2.1 Magnetostatic Field in Vacuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2.1.1 Stationary Electric Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
2.1.2 Fundamental Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
2.1.3 Magnetic Field of a Stationary Electric Current . . . . . . . 84
2.1.4 Magnetic Dipole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
2.1.5 Ampère’s Circuital Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
2.1.6 Vector Potential of the Field of a Stationary Current . . . 91
2.1.7 Energy of the Magnetic Field of Stationary Currents . . . 92
2.1.8 Magnetic Multipoles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.2 Magnetostatic Field in Magnetized Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2.2.1 Polarized Magnetic Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
2.2.2 Types of Magnetizable Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
2.2.3 Jump Conditions for the Components of the Fields
H and B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
2.3 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
2.4 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3 The Electromagnetic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
3.1 Maxwell’s Equations in Vacuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
3.1.1 Maxwell–Ampère Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
3.1.2 Maxwell–Faraday Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.2 Maxwell’s Equations for Polarizable Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
3.2.1 Source-free Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
3.2.2 Equations with Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
3.3 Jump Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
3.4 Electromagnetic Field Energy. Poynting’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.5 Uniqueness of the Solutions of Maxwell’s Equations . . . . . . . . . 132
3.6 Electromagnetic Momentum. Momentum Theorem. . . . . . . . . . . 134
3.7 Electromagnetic Angular Momentum. Angular Momentum
Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
3.8 Electrodynamic Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
3.9 Differential Equations for the Electrodynamic Potentials . . . . . . . 138
3.9.1 Gauge Transformations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
3.10 Different Types of Electrodynamic Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
3.10.1 Antipotentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
3.10.2 Hertz’s Vector Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
3.11 Electrodynamic Potentials and the Analytical Derivation
of Some Fundamental Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
3.11.1 Analytical Derivation of the Equation of Motion
of a Point Charge in an External
Electromagnetic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
3.11.2 Analytical Derivation of Maxwell’s Equations . . . . . . . . 148
Contents xi

3.12 Electromagnetic Field Equations for Moving Media . . . . . . . . . . 151

3.12.1 Source-free Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
3.12.2 Source Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
3.13 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.14 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
4 Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
4.1 Conductors, Semiconductors, Dielectrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
4.2 Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Dielectric Media . . . . . 171
4.2.1 Spherical Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.2.2 Transversality of Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . 175
4.2.3 Electromagnetic Theory of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
4.3 Polarization of the Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
4.4 Reflection and Refraction of Plane Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . 183
4.4.1 Laws of Reflection and Refraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
4.4.2 Fresnel’s Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
4.5 Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Massive Conductors.
Skin Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
4.6 Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Semiconductors . . . . . 195
4.7 Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Anisotropic Media . . . 197
4.7.1 Fresnel’s Ellipsoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
4.7.2 Fresnel’s Law of Velocities for Electromagnetic
Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
4.8 Dispersion of Electromagnetic Waves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.8.1 Phase Velocity and Group Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
4.8.2 Classical Theory of Dispersion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
4.8.3 Kramers–Kronig Dispersion Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
4.8.4 Dispersion in Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.9 Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Waveguides . . . . . . . . 226
4.9.1 Rectangular Waveguides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
4.9.2 Circular Waveguides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
4.9.3 Borgnis’ Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
4.10 Electromagnetic Radiation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
4.10.1 Solutions of the Electrodynamic Potential Equations. . . . 239
4.10.2 Wiechert–Liénard Potentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
4.11 Potentials of a Time-Variable Continuous Charge
Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
4.11.1 Electric Dipole Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
4.11.2 The Centre-Fed Thin Linear Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
4.12 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
4.13 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
xii Contents

5 Elements of Magnetofluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

5.1 Basic Equations of Magnetofluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
5.2 Freezing-In of Magnetic Field Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
5.3 Magnetohydrodynamic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
5.4 Some Problems of Magnetohydrostatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
5.4.1 Magnetic Thermal Insulation. The Pinch Effect . . . . . . . 310
5.4.2 Force-Free Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
5.5 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
5.6 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Part II Relativistic Formulation of Electrodynamics

6 Special Theory of Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
6.1 Experimental Basis of Special Relativity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
6.1.1 Aberration of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
6.1.2 Doppler Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
6.1.3 Fizeau’s Experiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
6.1.4 Michelson–Morley Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
6.2 Principles of Special Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
6.2.1 Einstein’s Postulates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
6.2.2 Lorentz Boosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
6.3 Some Consequences of the Lorentz Transformations . . . . . . . . . 353
6.3.1 Relativity of Simultaneity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
6.3.2 Length Contraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
6.3.3 Time Dilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
6.3.4 Relativistic Doppler Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
6.3.5 Composition of Velocities and Accelerations . . . . . . . . . 364
6.4 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
6.5 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
7 Minkowski Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
7.1 Time-Like and Space-Like Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
7.2 Various Representations of Minkowski Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
7.2.1 Euclidean-Complex Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
7.2.2 Hyperbolic Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
7.3 Four-Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
7.3.1 Euclidean-Complex Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
7.3.2 Hyperbolic Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
7.3.3 Lorentz Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
7.4 Relativistic Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
7.5 Relativistic Dynamics in Three-Dimensional Approach . . . . . . . . 399
7.5.1 Notions, Quantities, and Fundamental Relations. . . . . . . 399
7.5.2 Variation of Mass with Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
7.5.3 Relationship Between Mass and Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Contents xiii

7.6 Relativistic Dynamics in Four-Dimensional Approach . . . . . . . . 405

7.6.1 Hamilton–Jacobi Equation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
7.6.2 Force Four-Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
7.6.3 Angular Momentum Four-Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
7.7 Some Applications of Relativistic Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
7.7.1 Collision Between Two Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
7.7.2 Compton Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
7.7.3 Cherenkov Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
7.8 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
7.9 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
8 Relativistic Formulation of Electrodynamics
in Minkowski Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
8.1 Point Charge in Electromagnetic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
8.1.1 Three-Dimensional Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
8.1.2 Covariant Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
8.2 Electromagnetic Field Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
8.2.1 Gauge Invariance of F lm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
8.2.2 Lorentz Transformations of the Electromagnetic
Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
8.2.3 Invariants of the Electromagnetic Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
8.3 Covariant Form of the Equation of Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
8.4 Covariant Form of Maxwell’s Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
8.4.1 Maxwell’s Equations for Vacuum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
8.4.2 Maxwell’s Equations for Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
8.5 Covariant Form of Constitutive Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
8.5.1 Relation Between F lm and Glm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
8.5.2 Covariant Form of Ohm’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
8.6 Four-Potential and Its Differential Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
8.7 Conservation Laws of Electrodynamics in Covariant
Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
8.7.1 Noether’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
8.7.2 Energy-Momentum Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
8.7.3 Angular Momentum Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
8.7.4 Belinfante Energy-Momentum Tensor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
8.7.5 Energy-Momentum Tensor of the Electromagnetic
Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
8.7.6 Laws of Conservation of Electromagnetic Field
in the Presence of Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482
8.8 Elements of Relativistic Magnetofluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
8.8.1 Fundamental Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
8.8.2 Bernoulli’s Equation in Relativistic Magnetofluid
Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
8.9 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
8.10 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
xiv Contents

Part III Introduction to General Relativity

9 General Theory of Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
9.1 Classical Theory of Gravitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
9.2 Principles of General Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
9.3 Geodesics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
9.4 Covariant Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
9.4.1 Levi-Civita Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
9.4.2 Transformation Properties of the Connection
Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
9.4.3 Other Connections and the Torsion Tensor . . . . . . . . . . 527
9.5 Equations of Electrodynamics in the Presence of Gravitation. . . . 530
9.5.1 Maxwell’s Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
9.5.2 Equation of Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
9.5.3 Equation of Motion of a Point Charge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
9.6 Riemann Curvature Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
9.7 Einstein’s Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
9.8 Central Gravitational Field. Schwarzschild Metric . . . . . . . . . . . 546
9.9 Other Solutions of Einstein’s Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
9.10 Tests of General Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
9.10.1 Precession of the Perihelion of Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
9.10.2 Deflection of Light by the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
9.10.3 Gravitational Redshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
9.10.4 Gravitational Time Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568
9.10.5 Gravitational Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
9.11 Solved Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
9.12 Proposed Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Appendix A: Vectors and Vector Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Appendix B: Tensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
Appendix C: Representations of Minkowski Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Appendix D: Curvilinear Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Appendix E: Dirac’s d-Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Appendix F: Green’s Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Short History

More than two millennia passed between the incipient, qualitative observations on
electric and magnetic phenomena, due to Thales of Miletus (c. 620–c. 546 BCE),
Democritus (c. 460–c. 370 BCE), Aristotle (384–322 BCE), and up to the first
quantitative result, Coulomb’s law, written towards the end of the eighteenth
century.
During antiquity were known the compass, the magnetic properties of the solid
bodies, as well as the electricity produced by friction.
In the Middle Ages appeared some investigations on terrestrial magnetism. Petrus
Peregrinus (fl. 1261–1269), in “Epistola de magnete” (1269) defined the terms north
pole and south pole of a magnet and described how to identify them. The English
physician William Gilbert (1544–1603) in his book “De magnete” (1600) recognized
that the Earth was itself a magnet and defined the terrestrial magnetic poles. He
described many experiments on electric and magnetic static phenomena and
invented the electroscope, which was the first electrical measuring instrument.
Gilbert’s research considerably enlarged the experimental study of electrostatics
and magnetostatics. Later on, in the famous work of Otto von Guericke (1602–
1686) “Experimenta Nova Magdeburgica de Vacuo Spatio” (1672), for the first
time substances were divided into conductors and insulators. Another milestone in
experimental research took place in 1731, when Stephen Gray (1666–1736) suc-
ceeded in sending electricity through metal wires. Charles François du Fay (1698–
1739) discovered that charged bits of metal foil can attract or repel each other, and
concluded that there were two kinds of charges, which were then called “fluids”. It
took almost one century to settle the controversy whether there existed one or two
types of electric charges.
During the eighteenth century the Leyden/electric jar was invented in 1765 by
Pieter van Musschenbroeck (1692–1761). Many discoveries in electricity and
magnetism are due to Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). He proved that lightening is
an electric discharge and invented the lightening rod. Inspired by the Leyden jar, he
invented the plane capacitor. He also introduced the concepts of “positive” and
“negative” electricity and discovered the law of conservation of charge. The
investigations carried out in this period are based upon the hypothesis of the

xv
xvi Short History

existence of an imponderable medium called æther, as a medium for the electric,

magnetic, and light phenomena.
A new era in the study of electric and magnetic phenomena began in 1785, when
Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736–1806) postulated his famous law. An
impressive amount of research on the subject is connected with the names of Carl
Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1749–1827), Siméon Denis
Poisson (1781–1840), Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Humphry Davy (1778–1829),
Georg Simon Ohm (1789–1854), James Prescott Joule (1818–1889), etc.
In 1820 the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851) discovered the
magnetic effect of the electric current. Thus, for the first time, a connection between
electric and magnetic phenomena was established. Ørsted’s research was success-
fully continued by André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836), who discovered in 1823 his
circuital law connecting the circulation of the magnetic field around a closed loop
and the electric current passing through the loop, found the connection between a
circular current and a magnetic foil, and established the formula for the force of
interaction between two currents.
One of the most influential figures in the development of modern electrody-
namics was Michael Faraday’s (1791–1867). In 1831 he discovered the phe-
nomenon of electromagnetic induction, which was a crucial step in the unification
of electric and magnetic processes. In 1833 he established the laws of electrolysis,
and in 1836 – the theory of electric and magnetic field lines. He also introduced the
notion of a field, as a continuous material medium, defined at each point by its
intensity. Unlike the mechanical interpretation of his predecessors, Faraday
believed that the electric interactions do not propagate “instantly”, but in a finite
time interval, step by step, by contiguity or adjacency, through the medium of the
field. He defined the magnetic permeability and discovered the dia- and
para-magnetism. In 1832, Faraday submitted to the Royal Society of London a
sealed envelope which was opened after more than one hundred years, in 1937. The
content of the letter showed that he prefigured already then the existence of the
electromagnetic waves. An excerpt of that letter reads as follows: “I am inclined to
compare the diffusion of magnetic forces from a magnetic pole, to the vibrations
upon the surface of disturbed water, or those of air in the phenomena of sound, i.e.,
I am inclined to think the vibratory theory will apply to these phenomena, as it does
to sound, and most probably to light. By analogy I think it may possibly apply to the
phenomena of induction of electricity of tension also.” In 1846, Faraday published
his paper “Thoughts on Ray Vibrations” in which he expounded on the conception
of electromagnetic pulses or waves, and which Maxwell considered to be identical
in substance with his own theory of electromagnetism.
The revolutionary ideas of Faraday were brilliantly developed by James Clerk
Maxwell (1831–1879). His fundamental work was “A Treatise on Electricity and
Magnetism”, published in 1873. There he wrote down his famous system of
equations (whose modern form was given by Oliver Heaviside (1850–1925) in
1881), and used them to elaborate the electromagnetic theory of light and to pos-
tulate the existence of electromagnetic waves. Maxwell’s theory denied the
Newtonian concept of instantaneous action at a distance, but still conceived the
Short History xvii

field as being a state of elastic tension of the æther. By generalizing the funda-
mental laws of stationary currents in electromagnetism, Maxwell defined the notion
of displacement current and thus was led to acknowledge the fact that the elec-
tromagnetic phenomena can also take place in vacuum. The year 1888 is the year
of the triumph of Maxwell’s theory, when Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857–1894)
produced electromagnetic waves, proving their reflection, refraction, diffraction,
and interference.
The discovery of the electron in 1897, by Joseph John Thomson (1856–1940),
led to the elaboration of the microscopic theory of electromagnetic phenomena. The
most prominent contributions in this respect are due to Hendrik Antoon Lorentz
(1853–1928), Henri Poincaré (1854–1912), and Paul Langevin (1872–1946). The
electronic theory made possible the explanation of some phenomena, such as dia-,
para-, and ferromagnetism, the polarization of dia-, para-, and ferroelectric sub-
stances, light dispersion, etc., which cannot be explained in the framework of
Maxwell’s macroscopic theory.
The elaboration of the electrodynamics of moving media, by Hertz and Lorentz
at the end of the nineteenth century, led to contradictions concerning the hypo-
thetical absolute, quiescent, ubiquitous cosmic æther. These contradictions were
solved in 1905, by the special theory of relativity of Albert Einstein (1879–1955).
The unification of the notions of space and time is a great conceptual leap in
theoretical physics. The principles of this theory, its formalism, and some of its
applications are discussed in the second part of the book.
The special theory of relativity was born within the study of electrodynamics,
and the next aim of Einstein was to incorporate gravity in this relativistic frame-
work. In the first paper on this subject in 1907, Einstein introduced the equivalence
principle, which is the cornerstone of the general theory of relativity. Until 1915, he
developed the mathematical structure of the theory, based on Riemannian geometry
and tensor calculus, and finally came to the famous equations which encapsulate the
interplay between gravitational field and matter. As John A. Wheeler succinctly
summarized the core of the theory, “spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells
spacetime how to curve.” General relativity is the first modern theory of gravity and
the basis of the fast developing field of cosmology. In the third part of the book we
introduce the fundamentals of general relativity, as the natural continuation and
development of the theories and ideas elaborated on in the previous chapters.
The quantization of the electromagnetic field (quantum electrodynamics), the
study of the interaction between conducting fluids and electromagnetic field
(magnetofluid dynamics), microwave propagation, cosmology, etc., are subjects and
disciplines developed during the twentieth century and even nowadays.