TransWikia.com

Generalised Lorentz force expression from Classical Mechanics by Goldstein

Physics Asked by Kristian Stokkereit on January 25, 2021

I am reading chapter 7 in the 3rd edition of Goldstein’s Classical mechanics textbook and the expression for the Lorentz force is confusing me. I cannot scan it so I am just going to write it out verbatim and formulate my question afterwards. Here is the extract of page 298 from the text:

In terms of $phi$ and $mathbf{A}$, the Lorentz force is $$mathbf{F} = q{-nablaphi+frac{1}{c}frac{partial mathbf{A}}{partial t} + 1[v times(nablatimes mathbf{A})]}tag{7.67c}.$$
This suggests that we should generalize the force law to
$$frac{dp_{mu}}{dtau} = qleft(frac{partial (u^nu A_nu)}{partial x^mu}-frac{dA_mu}{dtau}right).tag{7.68}$$

The first equation is the three three dimensional Lorentz force express using the vector and scalar potentials (As a note I think the second term should be $-frac{partial A}{partial t}$ but the above is as written.)

I am unsure howhow you reach the second equation from the first expression, I would appreciate any help in understanding this problem.

One Answer

TL;DR: The total derivative term $$frac{dA_mu}{dtau}~=~gammafrac{dA_mu}{dt} ~=~gammaleft(vec{v}cdotvec{nabla} A_mu+ frac{partial A_mu}{partial t}right)$$ in eq. (7.68) is correct. It should not be a partial derivative.

Before trying to read the relativistic formulation in section 7.6, I would strongly recommend you to fully understand the non-relativistic derivation in section 1.5, which essentially features the same issue.

Answered by Qmechanic on January 25, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP