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 Ivezic 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.