Ampere's Law with Maxwell's correction is equivelant to Ampere's Law?

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SUMMARY

Ampere's Law with Maxwell's correction is equivalent to the Biot-Savart Law under specific conditions, particularly when considering stationary fields where the displacement current is negligible. The discussion highlights the derivation of the vector potential, \(\vec{A}\), using the Coulomb gauge, leading to the conclusion that the magnetic field, \(\vec{B}\), can be expressed through the Biot-Savart Law. The equations involved include \(\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B} = \frac{\vec{j}}{c}\) and \(\vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B} = 0\), which are fundamental in magnetostatics.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Maxwell's equations, specifically Ampere's Law and the displacement current.
  • Familiarity with the Biot-Savart Law and its application in magnetostatics.
  • Knowledge of vector calculus, particularly curl and divergence operations.
  • Concept of gauge choices in electromagnetism, specifically the Coulomb gauge.
NEXT STEPS
  • Study the derivation and implications of Maxwell's equations in Heaviside-Lorentz units.
  • Explore the mathematical formulation of the Biot-Savart Law in various coordinate systems.
  • Investigate the role of the vector potential \(\vec{A}\) in electromagnetic theory.
  • Learn about Green's functions and their applications in solving differential equations in physics.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for physicists, electrical engineers, and students studying electromagnetism, particularly those interested in the relationships between different laws of magnetism and their mathematical foundations.

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Is it true that Ampere's Law with Maxwell's correction is equivelant to Biot-Savart Law?
Under what assumptions?
 
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Biot-Savart holds for stationary fields, where Maxwell's displacement current doesn't play a role, i.e., you have the two magnetostatic equations (here for simplicity I neglect medium effects, i.e., use the vacuum equations in Heaviside-Lorentz units)

[tex]\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{B}=\frac{\vec{j}}{c}, \quad \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{B}=0.[/tex]

From the second equation, which says that there are no magnetic charges, we see that the magnetic field is a pure solenoidal field, i.e., there is a vector potential, [itex]\vec{A}[/itex] such that

[tex]\vec{B}=\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{A}.[/tex]

For a given magnetic field, the vector potential is only determined up to the gradient of a scalar field, and thus we can choose a constraint on the potential. In the so called Coulomb gauge one assumes

[tex]\vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{A}=0.[/tex]

Plugging now this ansatz into the first equation, which is Ampere's Law, we get (in Cartesian coordinates!)

[tex]\vec{\nabla} \times (\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{A})=\vec{\nabla} (\vec{\nabla} <br /> \cdot \vec{A})-\Delta \vec{A}=-\Delta \vec{A}=\frac{\vec{j}}{c}.[/tex]

Now this looks like the equation of electrostatics for each Cartesian component of the vector potential. From this we get immediately the solution in terms of the Green's function of the Laplacian:

[tex]\vec{A}(\vec{x})=\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \mathrm{d}^3 \vec{x}' \frac{\vec{j}(\vec{x}')}{4 \pi c |\vec{x}-\vec{x}'|}.[/tex]

Taking the curl of this solution, directly yields the Biot-Savart Law,

[tex]\vec{B}(\vec{x})=\int_{\mathbb{R}^3} \mathrm{d}^3 \vec{x}' \vec{j}(\vec{x}') \times \frac{\vec{x}-\vec{x}'}{4 \pi c |\vec{x}-\vec{x}'|^3} .[/tex]
 
Muchas Gracias!
 

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