Electric and Magnetic Fields: Do They Need Lorentz Covariance?
| Scientific Paper | |
|---|---|
| Title | Electric and Magnetic Fields: Do They Need Lorentz Covariance? |
| Read in full | Link to paper |
| Author(s) | Zbigniew Oziewicz |
| Keywords | {{{keywords}}} |
| Published | 2011 |
| Journal | None |
| Volume | 330 |
| Number | 012012 |
| No. of pages | 29 |
Read the full paper here
Abstract
7th Biennial Conf. on Classical and Quantum Relativistic Dynamics of Particles and Fields. Electric and magnetic �elds are relative. They depend not only on a choice of electromagnetic sources via Maxwell equations, but also on a choice of observer, a choice of material reference-system. In 1908 Minkowski defi�ned electric and magnetic �fields on a four-dimensional spacetime, as tensorial concomitants of observer. Minkowski de�ned Lorentzgroup-covariance of concomitant tensor �eld as group-action that commute with contractions. Present-day textbooks interpret Lorentz-group-covariance of concomitant tensor di�erently than Minkowski in 1908. In 2003-2005 Tomislav Ivez��ic re-invented Minkowski's group-covariance. Diff�erent interpretations of group-covariance, lead to di�fferent relativity transformations of electric and magnetic �fields.
An objective of present article is to explore third possibility, implicit in [Minkowski 1908, x11.6], where a set of all relativity transformations of all material observers forms a groupoid category, which is not a group.
