Maxwell Stress Tensor: Find Elements for Plane Wave in Z Direction

leonne
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Homework Statement


find all elements of maxwell stress tensor for a monochromatic plane wave traveling in z direction and linearly polarized in x.

Homework Equations


Tij=\epsilono(EiEj-(1/2)\deltaij E2+1/\muo(BiBj-(1/2)\deltaB2

The Attempt at a Solution


So i found what E and B is well not really important to my question but E =Eocos(KZ-wt) X direction
B=1/c Eocos(KZ-wt)Y direction

I have the solution, but kind of confused. They only found Txx Tyy Tzz why didnt they find Txy ext or is that wht it means by find all elements, just xx yy zz

So i found wht Txx is and I got TXX=1/2(\epsilonoE2-B21/\muo they got the same but than that = to zero. Why does it TXX= to zero? Same for Tyy

thanks
 
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Your T_xx is correct. As for the off diagonal terms:

Only one component of E and B are non zero.

The cross terms in the tensor are all of the form:

T_{ij}=\epsilon_0E_iE_j +\frac{1}{\mu_0}B_iB_j with i=/=jLet's consider the x-y term. That is:

T_{12}=T_{xy}=\epsilon_0E_xE_y +\frac{1}{\mu_0}B_xB_y

But, E_y and B_x are zero! Thus, T_xy is zero. Similarly all the other off diagonal elements are zero as well.
 
o ok thanks for the info
 
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