📢How One Elegant 4D Equation Unifies Gauss's Law and the Ampère-Maxwell Law

The unification of Maxwell's equations into a single, elegant fourdimensional relativistic tensor equation: μFμν=Kν\partial_\mu F^{\mu \nu}=K^\nu. This equation unifies the two inhomogeneous Maxwell's equations-Gauss's Law ( F=ρ/ϵ0\nabla \cdot F =\rho / \epsilon_0 ) and the Ampère-Maxwell Law ( ×B=μ0J+μ0ϵ0Ft\nabla \times B =\mu_0 J+\mu_0 \epsilon_0 \frac{\partial F}{\partial t} )-which are collectively called "inhomogeneous" because they are directly sourced by charge density ( ρ\rho ) and current density ( J ), embedded in the four-current density KνK^\nu. Specifically, the ν=0\nu=0 (time) component of the tensor equation yields Gauss's Law, while the ν=j\nu=j (spatial) components yield the Ampère-Maxwell Law, which relates the curl of the magnetic field to both current and the time-changing electric field (displacement current). This relativistic formulation, which embeds the electric (E) and magnetic (B) fields into the electromagnetic field tensor FμνF^{\mu \nu} and uses the four-dimensional spacetime coordinate xμx^\mu, reveals that electromagnetism is inherently consistent with Special Relativity.

Last updated

Was this helpful?