Solving the Integral present in Dirac's quantization of charge problem

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Homework Help Overview

This problem involves calculating the angular momentum of electromagnetic fields generated by an electric monopole and a magnetic monopole positioned along the z-axis. The focus is on solving a specific integral that arises in this context.

Discussion Character

  • Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss various methods for solving the integral, including integration by parts and substitution techniques. There is exploration of rewriting the denominator and considering the implications of different substitutions.

Discussion Status

Some participants have provided suggestions for manipulating the integral, while others express difficulty in progressing with the proposed methods. There is acknowledgment of specific conditions related to the variable "u" that may influence the approach taken.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that all terms in the integral, aside from "r," are constants, and there is a specific focus on the conditions under which the integral can be evaluated, particularly regarding the positivity of the term "1-u^2."

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Homework Statement


This problem involves an electric monopole placed at the origin and a magnetic monopole placed a distance D away, say arbitrarily, along the z-axis.

I need to compute the angular momentum of the EM fieds:
[itex]\vec{J_{field}} = \frac{1}{4\pi c}\int{d\tau \vec{r} \times (\vec{E}\times \vec{B})}[/itex]

The integral is over all space. After trudging along, I am left with the following integral:

[itex]\int_0^\infty{\frac{r dr}{[r^2 +D^2 -2Dru]^{3/2}}}[/itex]

If I can solve this last integral, I am home free.

Homework Equations



All terms in the integral, other than r, are constants with respect to r.

The Attempt at a Solution


I tried using integration by parts but was not able to get anywhere. "u" substitution taking the argument of the cube root in the denominator as "u" doesn't seem productive, either.

Unless my above two attempts were done wrong, I must say I am out of ideas.

Can anyone suggest anything?
 
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I would try writing the denominator as

[tex]r^2-2rDu+D^2u^2 -D^2u^2 +D^2=(r-Du)^2 + D^2(1-u^2)[/tex]

then try letting v = r - Du, dv = dr and see what that gets you.
 
Hi LCKurtz,

I can't seem to get much further with that approach as I'm left with a [tex](v+Du)dv[/tex] in the numerator and can't see where to go from there.
 
CmdrGuard said:
Hi LCKurtz,

I can't seem to get much further with that approach as I'm left with a [tex](v+Du)dv[/tex] in the numerator and can't see where to go from there.

And so the integrand is

[tex]\frac{v+Du}{(v^2 + D^2(1-u^2))^\frac 3 2}[/tex]

right? Certainly you can break that into two fractions and do the v part of the numerator with a substitution. Doing the other part it probably makes a difference if 1-u2 is positive or negative. If it is positive that part has the form

[tex]\int \frac 1 {(v^2+k^2)^{\frac 3 2}}[/tex]

and I think a trig substitution would work. And if 1-u2 is negative a different trig or maybe a hyperbolic trig substitution looks like it should work. Did you try those?
 
Yup.

That does it.

More specifically, [itex]1-u^2 \geq 0[/itex], since, for my problem, [itex]u \equiv cos(\theta)[/itex].

Thanks, LCKurtz.
 

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