- #1
Hornbein
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I have an understanding of Maxwell's equations and a vague grasp on potentials. I'm trying to do something different with the potentials. I'm using the Feynman Lectures on physics, http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_21.html#mjx-eqn-EqII2113, using the equations an potentials in a box about a third of the way in.
I vaguely understand what they are doing with the potentials and think there might be an easier way. Let's say our scalar potential is defined on a 4-vector of t,x,y,z and our grad operator is defined on that as well. My naive question is, what more information is there? It would seem like this would be enough, since if we have a potential like that then everything the particle does in its past and future is included. That is, the problem is already solved, we are just massaging it into a more useful form.
Anyway, that's the best I can do. If there is something like this, surely it has already been done. So I'm hoping someone knows the name of such a thing, or something of that sort. Another way to look at it is it seems to me there should be someway to use one potential instead of two. Maybe.
I vaguely understand what they are doing with the potentials and think there might be an easier way. Let's say our scalar potential is defined on a 4-vector of t,x,y,z and our grad operator is defined on that as well. My naive question is, what more information is there? It would seem like this would be enough, since if we have a potential like that then everything the particle does in its past and future is included. That is, the problem is already solved, we are just massaging it into a more useful form.
Anyway, that's the best I can do. If there is something like this, surely it has already been done. So I'm hoping someone knows the name of such a thing, or something of that sort. Another way to look at it is it seems to me there should be someway to use one potential instead of two. Maybe.