Definition of electric and magnetic fields in curved spacetime

Abstract

Defining the electric and magnetic field vectors in curved spacetime requires a proper choice of the observer’s frame four-vector. Related literature shows that this fundamental issue in physics still needs to be properly resolved. In recent literature on using electromagnetic means to detect gravitational waves, an ad hoc definition based on regarding Fab with two covariant indices as the special relativistic one is popular. We show that by assigning physical fields to tensor components in that way, we cannot identify the frame four-vector allowing such a choice, thus failing to properly define the external charge and current densities in that frame. We propose the normal frame as the proper one. In this frame, the weak gravity corrections appear as the effective polarizations and magnetizations in both the homogeneous and inhomogeneous parts of Maxwell’s equations.