Paper 3, Section II, C

Electrodynamics | Part II, 2014

The 4-vector potential Aμ(t,x)A^{\mu}(t, \mathbf{x}) (in the Lorenz gauge μAμ=0\partial_{\mu} A^{\mu}=0 ) due to a localised source with conserved 4-vector current JμJ^{\mu} is

Aμ(t,x)=μ04πJμ(tret,x)xxd3xA^{\mu}(t, \mathbf{x})=\frac{\mu_{0}}{4 \pi} \int \frac{J^{\mu}\left(t_{\mathrm{ret}}, \mathbf{x}^{\prime}\right)}{\left|\mathbf{x}-\mathbf{x}^{\prime}\right|} d^{3} \mathbf{x}^{\prime}

where tret =txx/ct_{\text {ret }}=t-\left|\mathbf{x}-\mathbf{x}^{\prime}\right| / c. For a source that varies slowly in time, show that the spatial components of AμA^{\mu} at a distance r=xr=|\mathbf{x}| that is large compared to the spatial extent of the source are

A(t,x)μ04πrdPdttr/c\left.\mathbf{A}(t, \mathbf{x}) \approx \frac{\mu_{0}}{4 \pi r} \frac{d \mathbf{P}}{d t}\right|_{t-r / c}

where P\mathbf{P} is the electric dipole moment of the source, which you should define. Explain what is meant by the far-field region, and calculate the leading-order part of the magnetic field there.

A point charge qq moves non-relativistically in a circle of radius aa in the (x,y)(x, y) plane with angular frequency ω\omega (such that aωca \omega \ll c ). Show that the magnetic field in the far-field at the point x\mathbf{x} with spherical polar coordinates r,θr, \theta and ϕ\phi has components along the θ\theta and ϕ\phi directions given by

Bθμ0ω2qa4πrcsin[ω(tr/c)ϕ]Bϕμ0ω2qa4πrccos[ω(tr/c)ϕ]cosθ\begin{aligned} &B_{\theta} \approx-\frac{\mu_{0} \omega^{2} q a}{4 \pi r c} \sin [\omega(t-r / c)-\phi] \\ &B_{\phi} \approx \frac{\mu_{0} \omega^{2} q a}{4 \pi r c} \cos [\omega(t-r / c)-\phi] \cos \theta \end{aligned}

Calculate the total power radiated by the charge.

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.