Is Gauss's Law Valid for Moving Charges?

AI Thread Summary
Gauss's Law is derived from Coulomb's Law, which applies to static point charges, but its validity extends to moving charges as well. The discussion highlights that while textbooks often state Gauss's Law remains valid for electrodynamics, they provide limited theoretical justification. It is noted that the validity of Maxwell's equations, which include Gauss's Law, is supported by empirical testing and has not been disproven within the classical framework. Acceptance of Special Relativity implies that Gauss's Law holds true for moving charges. Overall, the consensus is that Gauss's Law is applicable in both static and dynamic scenarios, supported by experimental evidence and theoretical consistency.
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I found in this forum an old thread regarding this topic, but as it didn't have (in my opinion) a satisfactory answer, I decided to open a new one.
Usually when one begins to study Electromagnetism, Coulomb's law in introduced as an experimental result valid for static point charges. From Coulomb's law, some books then derive Gauss's law. What has ben bothering me is that when it comes to electrodynamics, therefore with moving charges, the books (at least the ones I've read) only briefly mention that Gauss's law is still valid. I ask if someone here knows if this is a result primarily obtained from experiment ( and if so, when and who did it?) or it can be seen with a theoretical argument.
By the way, before someone suggests to apply the divergence to a calculated electric field of moving charges, I don't think it is reasonable, once these field are obtained as solutions to Maxwell's equations which include Gauss's law.
Thanks
 
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Of course, the validity of Maxwell's equations as a description of real phenomena cannot be mathematically proven. They provide a theory of such a description that is subject to empirical testing, i.e., you make predictions for observations from them and compare to (experimental) observations in nature. So far, we have no evidence that the Maxwell equations fail (within the boundaries of applicability of the classical-field-theory approximation to quantum electrodynamics). That's why we think that they are a valid description of electromagnetical phenomena.
 
Maxwell's equations, including div E=4 pi rho, are relativistically covariant.
Gauss's law is experimentally verified for a charge at rest.
If you accept Special Relativity, Gauss's law holds for a charge in motion.
 

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