Electromagnetism and special relativity

Abstract

In 1905, when Einstein published his theory of special relativity, Maxwell’s work was already about forty years old. It is therefore both remarkable and ironic (recalling the old arguments about the aether being the ‘preferred’ reference frame for describing wave propagation) that classical electrodynamics turned out to be a relativistically correct theory. In this chapter, a range of questions in electromagnetism are considered as they relate to special relativity. In Questions 12.1–12.4 the behaviour of various physical quantities under Lorentz transformation is considered. This leads to the important concept of an invariant. Several of these are encountered, and used frequently throughout this chapter. Other topics considered include the transformationof E- and B-fields between inertial reference frames, the validity of Gauss’s law for an arbitrarily moving point charge (demonstrated numerically), the electromagnetic field tensor, Maxwell’s equations in covariant form and Larmor’s formula for a relativistic charge.