How Does Absorbing an Electric Field Affect the Magnetic Field Across a Surface?

[Physgeek64]

Homework Statement

An electromagnetic wave is incident on a surface which absorbs all the electric field. Use Maxwell’s equations to determine the magnetic field on the other side of the surface.

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

My initial thought was that $B=0$ as a varying B field would produce an E field. But then I thought we could still have a constant E field that has no oscillations. Is this even possible (it doesn't seem likely to me).

Many thanks

 

[Delta2]

With the assumption that nothing "extraordinary" is happening on the other side of the surface (for example we could have another EM wave there or a static E-Field from a charge distribution), all you can deduce from Maxwell's equations is that:

-the magnetic field will be constant with respect to time . This follows from Faraday's law, you are right that the B field isn't necessarily zero but just constant wrt time(no time varying)

-the magnetic field will be curl-free (irrotational, or equivalently its curl will be zero) . This follows from Maxwell's-Ampere law, since we know that the E-field is zero on the other side