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Spacetime Geometry Of Acoustics And Electromagnetism, Lucas Burns, Tatsuya Daniel, Stephon Alexander, Justin Dressel
Spacetime Geometry Of Acoustics And Electromagnetism, Lucas Burns, Tatsuya Daniel, Stephon Alexander, Justin Dressel
Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research
Both acoustics and electromagnetism represent measurable fields in terms of dynamical potential fields. Electromagnetic force-fields form a spacetime bivector that is represented by a dynamical energy–momentum 4-vector potential field. Acoustic pressure and velocity fields form an energy–momentum density 4-vector field that is represented by a dynamical action scalar potential field. Surprisingly, standard field theory analyses of spin angular momentum based on these traditional potential representations contradict recent experiments, which motivates a careful reassessment of both theories. We analyze extensions of both theories that use the full geometric structure of spacetime to respect essential symmetries enforced by vacuum wave propagation. The …
Spacetime Algebra As A Powerful Tool For Electromagnetism, Justin Dressel, Konstantin Y. Bliokh, Franco Nori
Spacetime Algebra As A Powerful Tool For Electromagnetism, Justin Dressel, Konstantin Y. Bliokh, Franco Nori
Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research
We present a comprehensive introduction to spacetime algebra that emphasizes its practicality and power as a tool for the study of electromagnetism. We carefully develop this natural (Clifford) algebra of the Minkowski spacetime geometry, with a particular focus on its intrinsic (and often overlooked) complex structure. Notably, the scalar imaginary that appears throughout the electromagnetic theory properly corresponds to the unit 4-volume of spacetime itself, and thus has physical meaning. The electric and magnetic fields are combined into a single complex and frame-independent bivector field, which generalizes the Riemann-Silberstein complex vector that has recently resurfaced in studies of the single …