1. Jan 29, 2005

### anonymous299792458

1. Maxwell's equations do not hold in NON INTERTIAL reference frames, right??

2. Lets say you have a charge which was briefly accelerated. You surround it by a closed surface CLOSE to the charge and integrate the Poynting vector over this surface and with respect to time to get the TOTAL energy radiated (the energy which passed through this surface). Now you surround the charge by a closed surface INFINITELY FAR from the charge and find the total energy which went through this surface. Will the second integration yield LESS TOTAL energy than the first??? I'm thinking that some of the energy which passes through the closed surface near the charge does not make it to infinity, rather it is "used" to increase the magnetic field of the charge. Remember, the magnetic field will have to increase since the speed of the charge increased, and this energy has to come from somewhere. Now what if the acceleration was negative (i.e. the speed of our charged decreased), will the radiation at infinity be greater than radiation close to the charge? If not, where does the energy which was in the magnetic field end up? Could someone who really knows this stuff tell me which, if any, errors I've made.

2. Jan 29, 2005

### dextercioby

For the first part,NO,THEY DO NOT...The generally covariant equations are called Maxwell-Einstein equations.

Daniel.

3. Jan 29, 2005

### pmb_phy

Maxwell's equations can be expressed in what is called covariant form which basically means that its expressed in terms of tensors. As such they hold in all coordinate systems. However if you express them in coordinate form and the spatial coordinates are Cartesian then you'll get a set of equations which are different than the ones corresponding to the inertial frame.

As far as the second part its an excellent question. I don't know the answer though, however I know someone who probably does. In fact he's an exert on this stuff. Let me ask him and I'll get back to you on this if he's available.
Huh? They're the same equations. Most people (e.g. MTW, Wald, Rindler, Weinberg etc.) simply call them "Maxwell's equations." I've rarely, if ever, seen them referred to as Maxwell-Einstein equations. That's simply a different name for the exact same thing, i.e. Maxwell's equations in tensor form.

Pete

4. Jan 29, 2005

### dextercioby

I wouldn't call them Maxwell equations...They come the variational principle imposed to the HE-Mawell action and it really woudn't be fair...

Daniel.

5. Jan 29, 2005

### pmb_phy

So? Why wouldn't it be "fair"?

Pete

6. Jan 29, 2005

### vincentchan

for the second part of the question, I can answer you...
YES,YOU ARE RIGHT, if you have INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRODYNAMICS, 3rd edit, by Griffiths, flip to page 460, it explains clearly... I'll qoute some of its word without the math involve...

7. Jan 29, 2005

### dextercioby

Because they're different from the ones written by Maxwell round 1863.I don't know whether it was Einstein or Hilbert (or even somebody else) the first to write them (the general covariant tensor equations) down,but it certainly wasn't James Clerk Maxwell...

Daniel.

8. Feb 1, 2005

### pmb_phy

Note: If you were to find the total mass-energy of a charged particle in the particle's rest frame (energy of rest mass + mass-energy of electric field) then to find the total mass-energy of the moving particle you simply multiply by $gamma m_0$ where $m_0$ is the "rest mass + mass-energy of electric field in zero momentum frame". $m_0$ is called the "electromagnetic rest mass" of the particle.

Pete