A3.5 B3.3

Electromagnetism | Part II, 2001

(i) Develop the theory of electromagnetic waves starting from Maxwell equations in vacuum. You should relate the wave-speed cc to ϵ0\epsilon_{0} and μ0\mu_{0} and establish the existence of plane, plane-polarized waves in which E\mathbf{E} takes the form

E=(E0cos(kzωt),0,0).\mathbf{E}=\left(E_{0} \cos (k z-\omega t), 0,0\right) .

You should give the form of the magnetic field B\mathbf{B} in this case.

(ii) Starting from Maxwell's equation, establish Poynting's theorem.

jE=Wt+S,-\mathbf{j} \cdot \mathbf{E}=\frac{\partial W}{\partial t}+\nabla \cdot \mathbf{S},

where W=ϵ02E2+12μ0B2W=\frac{\epsilon_{0}}{2} \mathbf{E}^{2}+\frac{1}{2 \mu_{0}} \mathbf{B}^{2} and S=1μ0EB\mathbf{S}=\frac{1}{\mu_{0}} \mathbf{E} \wedge \mathbf{B}. Give physical interpretations of W,SW, S and the theorem.

Compute the averages over space and time of WW and S\mathbf{S} for the plane wave described in (i) and relate them. Comment on the result.

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