question about Ampere's law in vacuum and in matter

Arham

Hi

We can derive equation [itex]\nabla.D=\rho_f[/itex] from equation [itex]\nabla.E=\rho/\epsilon_0[/itex]. But what about Ampere's law? I tried to derive [itex]\nabla\times{H}=J_f+\partial{D}/\partial{t}[/itex] from [itex]\nabla\times{B}=\mu_0J+\epsilon_0\mu_0\partial{E}/\partial{t}[/itex] but I could not. This is strange because I thought that Maxwell's equations in vacuum are enough for studying electromagnetic field in any matter and that Maxwell's equations in matter are derivable from them.

mfb

They are, if you add some assumptions about the material - D proportional (and parallel) to E and so on.
For materials where this is not true, I don't know.

Arham

[itex]\partial{D}/\partial{t}=\epsilon_0\partial{E}/\partial{t}+\partial{P}/\partial{t}[/itex]. The second term is underivable from Ampere's law in vacuum.

mfb

Add the assumption that ##D \propto E##, and it works.

In general, this can be wrong, but I don't know if the regular Maxwell equations work there at all. If ##\epsilon_r## is a tensor (or nonlinear), things can get difficult.

Arham

Dear mfb,

I think I found the solution. [itex]\partial{P}/\partial{t}[/itex] is some kind of current (bound charges are moving). So if we write total current density as [itex]J=J_f+\nabla\times{M}+J_p[/itex] where [itex]J_p[/itex] is polarization current density, we can solve the problem.