Generalized Maxwell equations for exterior-algebra multivectors in $(k,n)$ space-time dimensions
Ivano Colombaro, Josep Font-Segura, Alfonso Martinez
备注：
26 pages, 2 figures. In this paper, with respect to the published version, Eq. (35) has been corrected with a different sign of a term. The procedure followed in Appendix 1.2 is not fully correct, despite the result is. The correct procedure is presented in Sect. 3.6 of Eur. Phys. J. Plus 136, 212 (2021), (arXiv:2104.07013)
This paper presents an exterior-algebra generalization of electromagnetic fields and source currents as multivectors of grades $r$ and $r-1$ respectively in a flat space-time with $n$ space and $k$ time dimensions. Formulas for the Maxwell equations and the Lorentz force for arbitrary values of $r$, $n$, and $k$ are postulated in terms of interior and exterior derivatives, in a form that closely resembles their vector-calculus analogues. These formulas lead to solutions in terms of potentials of grade $r-1$, and to conservation laws in terms of a stress-energy-momentum tensor of rank 2 for any values of $r$, $n$, and $k$, for which a simple explicit formula is given. As an application, an expression for the flux of the stress-energy-momentum tensor across an $(n+k-1)$-dimensional slice of space-time is given in terms of the Fourier transform of the potentials. The abstraction of Maxwell equations with exterior calculus combines the simplicity and intuitiveness of vector calculus, as the formulas admit explicit expressions, with the power of tensors and differential forms, as the formulas can be given for any values of $r$, $n$, and $k$.
The basic concepts of exterior calculus for space-time multivectors are presented: interior and exterior products, interior and exterior derivatives, oriented integrals over hypersurfaces, circulation and flux of multivector fields. Two Stokes theorems relating the exterior and interior derivatives with circulation and flux respectively are derived. As an application, it is shown how the exterior-calculus space-time formulation of the electromagnetic Maxwell equations and Lorentz force recovers the standard vector-calculus formulations, in both differential and integral forms.
A novel formulation of statics in terms of the exterior algebra of an affine space is shown to be the underlying mathematical structure of Vlasov's thin-walled beam theory in structural mechanics.
In this paper, we review two related aspects of field theory: the modeling of the fields by means of exterior algebra and calculus, and the derivation of the field dynamics, i.e., the Euler-Lagrange equations, by means of the stationary action principle. In contrast to the usual tensorial derivation of these equations for field theories, that gives separate equations for the field components, two related coordinate-free forms of the Euler-Lagrange equations are derived. These alternative forms of the equations, reminiscent of the formulae of vector calculus, are expressed in terms of vector de…
This paper characterizes the symmetric rank-2 stress-energy-momentum tensor associated with fields whose Lagrangian densities are expressed as the dot product of two multivector fields, e. g., scalar or gauge fields, in flat space-time. The tensor is derived by a direct application of exterior-algebraic methods to deal with the invariance of the action to infinitesimal space-time translations; this direct derivation avoids the use of the canonical tensor. Formulas for the tensor components and for the tensor itself are derived for generic values of the multivector grade $s$ and of the number o…
The derivation $d_T$ on the exterior algebra of forms on a manifold $M$ with values in the exterior algebra of forms on the tangent bundle $TM$ is extended to multivector fields. These tangent lifts are studied with applications to the theory of Poisson structures, their symplectic foliations, canonical vector fields and Poisson-Lie groups.
A Hamiltonian field theory for the macroscopic Maxwell equations with fully general polarization and magnetization is stated in the language of differential forms. The precise procedure for translating the vector calculus formulation into differential forms is discussed in detail. We choose to distinguish between straight and twisted differential forms so that all integrals be taken over densities (i.e. twisted top forms). This ensures that the duality pairings, which are stated as integrals over densities, are orientation independent. The relationship between functional differentiation with r…
A fundamental result of classical electromagnetism is that Maxwell's equations imply that electric charge is locally conserved. Here we show the converse: Local charge conservation implies the local existence of fields satisfying Maxwell's equations. This holds true for any conserved quantity satisfying a continuity equation. It is obtained by means of a strong form of the Poincaré lemma presented here that states: Divergence-free multivector fields locally possess curl-free antiderivatives on flat manifolds. The above converse is an application of this lemma in the case of divergence-free vec…
We prove that the time-harmonic solutions to Maxwell's equations in a 3D exterior domain converge to a certain static solution as the frequency tends to zero. We work in weighted Sobolev spaces and construct new compactly supported replacements for Dirichlet-Neumann fields. Moreover, we even show convergence in operator norm.
We continue the study of the operator of generalized Maxwell equations and completely discover the behavior of the solutions of the time-harmonic equations as the frequency tends to zero. Thereby, we identify degenerate operators in terms of special 'polynomially growing' solutions of a corresponding static problem, which must be added to the 'usual' Neumann series in order to describe the low frequency asymptotic adequately.
In this paper we present a new theory of calculus over $k$-dimensional domains in a smooth $n$-manifold, unifying the discrete, exterior, and continuum theories. The calculus begins at a single point and is extended to chains of finitely many points by linearity, or superposition. It converges to the smooth continuum with respect to a norm on the space of ``pointed chains,'' culminating in the chainlet complex. Through this complex, we discover a broad theory of coordinate free, multivector analysis in smooth manifolds for which both the classical Newtonian calculus and the Cartan exterior cal…
We discuss the radiation problem of total reflection for a time-harmonic generalized Maxwell system in a non-smooth exterior domain with non-smooth inhomogeneous, anisotropic coefficients converging near infinity with a certain rate towards the identity. By means of the limiting absorption principle, a Fredholm alternative holds true and the eigensolutions decay polynomially resp. exponentially at infinity. We prove that the corresponding eigenvalues do not accumulate even at zero. Next, we show the convergence of the time-harmonic solutions to a solution of an electro-magneto static Maxwell s…
Let $V$ be a $n$-dimensional real vector space. In this paper we introduce the concept of \emph{euclidean} Clifford algebra $\mathcal{C\ell}(V,G_{E})$ for a given euclidean structure on $V,$ i.e., a pair $(V,G_{E})$ where $G_{E}$ is a euclidean metric for $V$ (also called an euclidean scalar product). Our construction of $\mathcal{C\ell}(V,G_{E})$ has been designed to produce a powerful computational tool. We start introducing the concept of \emph{multivectors} over $V.$ These objects are elements of a linear space over the real field, denoted by $\bigwedge V.$ We introduce moreover, the conce…
This paper treats the time-harmonic electro-magnetic scattering or radiation problem governed by Maxwell's equations in an exterior weak Lipschitz domain divided into two disjoint weak Lipschitz parts We will present a solution theory using the framework of polynomially weighted Sobolev spaces for the rotation and divergence. We will show a Fredholm alternative type result to hold using the principle of limiting absorption introduced by Eidus in the 1960's. The necessary a-priori-estimate and polynomial decay of eigenfunctions for the Maxwell equations will be obtained by transferring well kno…
Superanalysis can be deformed with a fermionic star product into a Clifford calculus that is equivalent to geometric algebra. With this multivector formalism it is then possible to formulate Riemannian geometry and an inhomogeneous generalization of exterior calculus. Moreover it is shown here how symplectic and Poisson geometry fit in this context. The application of this formalism together with the bosonic star product formalism of deformation quantization leads then on space and space-time to a natural appearance of spin structures and on phase space to BRST structures that were found in th…
A new Morawetz or integrated local energy decay estimate for Maxwell test fields on the exterior of a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime is proved. The proof makes use of a new superenergy tensor $H_{ab}$ defined in terms of the Maxwell field and its first derivatives. The superenergy tensor, although not conserved, yields a conserved higher order energy current $H_{ab} (\partial_t)^b$. The tensor $H_{ab}$ vanishes for the static Coulomb field, and the Morawetz estimate proved here therefore yields integrated decay for the Maxwell field to the Coulomb solution on the Schwarzschild exterior.
We develop a solution theory for a generalized electro-magneto static Maxwell system in an exterior domain with anisotropic coefficients converging at infinity with a certain rate towards the identity. Our main goal is to treat right hand side data from some polynomially weighted Sobolev spaces and obtain solutions which are up to a finite sum of special generalized spherical harmonics in another appropriately weighted Sobolev space. As a byproduct we prove a generalized spherical harmonics expansion suited for Maxwell equations. In particular, our solution theory will allow us to give meaning…
The Clifford algebra over the three-dimensional real linear space includes its linear structure and its exterior algebra, the subspaces spanned by multivectors of the same degree determine a gradation of the Clifford algebra. Through these geometric notions, natural one-to-one and two-to-one homomorphisms from $\mbox{SO}(3)$ into $\mbox{SU}(2)$ are built conventionally, and the set of qubits, is identified with a subgroup of $\mbox{SU}(2)$. These constructions are suitable to be extended to corresponding tensor powers. The notions of qubits, quregisters and qugates are translated into the lang…
The theory of derivatives and integrals of non-integer order goes back to Leibniz, Liouville, Grunwald, Letnikov and Riemann. The history of fractional vector calculus (FVC) has only 10 years. The main approaches to formulate a FVC, which are used in the physics during the past few years, will be briefly described in this paper. We solve some problems of consistent formulations of FVC by using a fractional generalization of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. We define the differential and integral vector operations. The fractional Green's, Stokes' and Gauss's theorems are formulated. The pro…
Let $V(t) = e^{tG_b},\: t \geq 0,$ be the semigroup generated by Maxwell's equations in an exterior domain $Ω\subset {\mathbb R}^3$ with dissipative boundary condition $E_{tan}- γ(x) (ν\wedge B_{tan}) = 0, γ(x) > 0, \forall x \in Γ= \partial Ω.$ We study the case when $Ω= \{x \in {\mathbb R^3}:\: |x| > 1\}$ and $γ\neq 1$ is a constant. We establish a Weyl formula for the counting function of the negative real eigenvalues of $G_b.$
Minkowski famously introduced the concept of a space-time continuum in 1908, merging the three dimensions of space with an imaginary time dimension $ i c t $, with the unit imaginary producing the correct spacetime distance $ x^2 - c^2 t^2 $, and the results of Einstein's then recently developed theory of special relativity, thus providing an explanation for Einstein's theory in terms of the structure of space and time. As an alternative to a planar Minkowski space-time of two space dimensions and one time dimension, we replace the unit imaginary $ i = \sqrt{-1} $, with the Clifford bivector $…
The time evolution of a collisionless plasma is modeled by the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system which couples the Vlasov equation (the transport equation) with the Maxwell equations of electrodynamics. We consider the case that the plasma consists of $N$ particle species, the particles are located in a bounded container $Ω\subset\mathbb R^3$, and are subject to boundary conditions on $\partialΩ$. Furthermore, there are external currents, typically in the exterior of the container, that may serve as a control of the plasma if adjusted suitably. We do not impose perfect conductor boundary cond…
We prove that in contrast to the free wave equation in $\R^3$ there are no incoming solutions of Maxwell's equations in the form of spherical or modulated spherical waves. We construct solutions which are corrected by lower order incoming waves. With their aid, we construct dissipative boundary conditions and solutions to Maxwell's equations in the exterior of a sphere which decay exponentially as $t \to +\infty$. They are asymptotically disappearing. Disappearing solutions which are identically zero for $t \geq T > 0$ are constructed which satisfy maximal dissipative boundary conditions which…
For a bounded weak Lipschitz domain we show the so called `Maxwell compactness property', that is, the space of square integrable vector fields having square integrable weak rotation and divergence and satisfying mixed tangential and normal boundary conditions is compactly embedded into the space of square integrable vector fields. We will also prove some canonical applications, such as Maxwell estimates, Helmholtz decompositions and a static solution theory. Furthermore, a Fredholm alternative for the underlying time-harmonic Maxwell problem and all corresponding and related results for exter…
It is proved that the space of differential forms with weak exterior and co-derivative, is compactly embedded into the space of square integrable differential forms. Mixed boundary conditions on weak Lipschitz domains are considered. Furthermore, canonical applications such as Maxwell estimates, Helmholtz decompositions and a static solution theory are proved. As a side product and crucial tool for our proofs we show the existence of regular potentials and regular decompositions as well.
We prove polynomial and exponential decay at infinity of eigen-vectors of partial differential operators related to radiation problems for time-harmonic generalized Maxwell systems in an exterior domain with non-smooth inhomogeneous, anisotropic coefficients converging near infinity with a certain rate towards the identity. As a canonical application we show that the corresponding eigen-values do not accumulate in R \ {0} and that by means of Eidus' limiting absorption principle a Fredholm alternative holds true.
Let $V(t) = e^{tG_b},\: t \geq 0,$ be the semigroup generated by Maxwell's equations in an exterior domain $Ω\subset {\mathbb R}^3$ with dissipative boundary condition $E_{tan}- γ(x) (ν\wedge B_{tan}) = 0, γ(x) > 0, \forall x \in Γ= \partial Ω.$ We prove that if $γ(x)$ is nowhere equal to 1, then for every $0 < ε\ll 1$ and every $N \in {\mathbb N}$ the eigenvalues of $G_b$ lie in the region $Λ_ε \cup {\mathcal R}_N,$ where $Λ_ε = \{ z \in {\mathbb C}:\: |\Re z | \leq C_ε (|\Im z|^{\frac{1}{2} + ε} + 1), \: \Re z < 0\},$ ${\mathcal R}_N = \{z \in {\mathbb C}:\: |\Im z| \leq C_N (|\Re z| + 1)^{-…
The Maxwell equations for chiral media are treated with the aid of quaternionic analysis methods. Besides the possibility of simplification of the form of such basic facts like the Stratton-Chu formulas we obtain a criterion for the extendability of the electromagnetic field from a sufficiently smooth closed surface to its interior or exterior domain.
We prove regularity results up to the boundary for time independent generalized Maxwell equations on Riemannian manifolds with boundary using the calculus of alternating differential forms. We discuss homogeneous and inhomogeneous boundary data and show 'polynomially weighted' regularity in exterior domains as well.
Inverse scattering problem is discussed for the Maxwell's equations. A reduction of the Maxwell's system to a new Fredholm second-kind integral equation with a {\it scalar weakly singular kernel} is given for electromagnetic (EM) wave scattering. This equation allows one to derive a formula for the scattering amplitude in which only a scalar function is present. If this function is small (an assumption that validates a Born-type approximation), then formulas for the solution to the inverse problem are obtained from the scattering data: the complex permittivity $\ep'(x)$ in a bounded region $D\…
We find solutions $E:Ω\to\mathbb{R}^3$ of the problem \begin{eqnarray*} \left\{ \begin{aligned} &\nabla\times(μ(x)^{-1}\nabla\times E) - ω^2ε(x) E = \partial_E F(x,E) &&\quad \text{in }Ω\\%\newline &ν\times E = 0 &&\quad \text{on }\partialΩ \end{aligned} \right. \end{eqnarray*} on a bounded Lipschitz domain $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^3$ with exterior normal $ν:\partialΩ\to\mathbb{R}^3$. Here $\nabla\times$ denotes the curl operator in $\mathbb{R}^3$. The equation describes the propagation of the time-harmonic electric field $\Re\{E(x)e^{iωt}\}$ in an anisotropic material with a magnetic permeability …
Two field 2-forms on the space-time manifold, in a relationship of duality, are presented and included in the extended phase-space structure used to describe relativistic particles having both electric and magnetic charges. By exterior derivatives, these forms yield the two groups of Maxwell equations, while specific integrality conditions ensure magnetic monopole or electric charge quantization. Some properties of the common characteristic vector of the dual 2-forms are discussed. It is shown that the coupled energy-density continuity equation and the eikonal equation represent a classical, i…
These draft notes are from a graduate course given by the author in Berkeley during the spring semester of 2005. They cover the basic ideas of a new, geometric approach to geometric measure theory. They begin with a new theory of exterior calculus at a single point. This infinitesimal theory extends, by linearity, to a discrete exterior theory, based at finitely many points. A general theory of calculus culminates by taking limits in Banach spaces, and is valid for domains called ``chainlets'' which are defined to be elements of the Banach spaces. Chainlets include manifolds, rough domains (e.…
The time evolution of a collisionless plasma is modeled by the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell system which couples the Vlasov equation (the transport equation) with the Maxwell equations of electrodynamics. We consider the case that the plasma is located in a bounded container $Ω\subset\mathbb R^3$, for example a fusion reactor. Furthermore, there are external currents, typically in the exterior of the container, that may serve as a control of the plasma if adjusted suitably. We model objects, that are placed in space, via given matrix-valued functions $\varepsilon$ (the permittivity) and $μ$ (th…
Da Rocha and Rodigues (RR) claim (i) that in classical electrodynamics in vector calculus the distinction between polar and axial vectors and in exterior calculus between twisted and untwisted forms is inappropriate and superfluous, and (ii) that they can derive the Lorentz force equation from Maxwell's equations. As to (i), we point out that the distinction of polar/axial and twisted/untwisted derives from the property of the electric charge of being a pure scalar, that is, not carrying any screw sense. Therefore, the mentioned distinctions are necessary ingredients in any fundamental theory …
