Sign of Maxwell's stress tensor

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the sign convention of Maxwell's stress tensor in relation to the electromagnetic momentum energy tensor. Participants explore the implications of these signs in the context of electromagnetic theory, referencing derivations and literature.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions why Maxwell's stress tensor has a minus sign compared to the corresponding components of the electromagnetic momentum energy tensor.
  • Another participant provides a derivation related to the force per unit volume of the electromagnetic field, suggesting a preference for defining the stress tensor in terms of the momentum tensor.
  • A reference to Landau and Lifshitz is made, indicating that they refer to the negative of the stress tensor as Maxwell's stress tensor.
  • Participants share links to external resources, including Wikipedia, to support their claims and provide further reading.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the sign convention of the stress tensor and its relationship to the momentum tensor, indicating that multiple competing perspectives remain without a clear consensus.

Contextual Notes

There are references to specific definitions and derivations that may depend on the context or assumptions made in electromagnetic theory, which are not fully resolved in the discussion.

sweet springs
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Why Maxwell's stress tensor has minus sign to the corresponding components of electromagnetic momentum energy tensor ?

From WP ---
Bzx%7D%20&%20-%5Csigma_%5Ctext%7Bzy%7D%20&%20-%5Csigma_%5Ctext%7Bzz%7D%20%5Cend%7Bbmatrix%7D$%7D.png
,

where
imgtex.png
,
is the Poynting vector,
imgtex.png

is the Maxwell stress tensor, and c is the speed of light.
----
 
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Thanks. From there

-\mathbf{f} = \epsilon_0 \mu_0 \frac{\partial \mathbf{S}}{\partial t}\, + \nabla \cdot \mathbf{(-\sigma)}

where f is the force per unit volume of material, so -f should be the force per unit volume of e.m. field.

Rather than \mathbf{T^{ij}}=\mathbf{-\sigma}^{ij}, \mathbf{\sigma^{ij}} first, I prefer T first, defined from T,
\mathbf{\sigma^{ij}} =\mathbf{-T^{ij}}.
 
Bzx%7D%20&%20-%5Csigma_%5Ctext%7Bzy%7D%20&%20-%5Csigma_%5Ctext%7Bzz%7D%20%5Cend%7Bbmatrix%7D$%7D.png
,

On which wikipedia page did you find this?
 

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