Are Maxwell's equations Lorentz-covariant?
Abstract
It is stated in many textbooks that Maxwell's equations are manifestly covariant when written down in tensorial form. We recall that tensorial form of Maxwell's equations does not secure their tensorial contents; they become covariant by postulating certain transformation properties of field functions. That fact should be stressed when teaching about the covariance of Maxwell's equations.
- Publication:
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European Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0143-0807/38/1/015602
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1605.05358
- Bibcode:
- 2017EJPh...38a5602R
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Classical Physics
- E-Print:
- This is an enlarged version of the paper D V Red\v{z}i\'c, Are Maxwell's equations Lorentz-covariant? Eur. J. Phys. 38 015602 (2017), which contains some new material, 11 pages