A variational formulation of electrodynamics with external sources
Mathematical Physics
2009-02-26 v3 Differential Geometry
math.MP
Abstract
We present a variational formulation of electrodynamics using de Rham even and odd differential forms. Our formulation relies on a variational principle more complete than the Hamilton principle and thus leads to field equations with external sources and permits the derivation of the constitutive relations. We interpret a domain in space-time as an odd de Rham 4-current. This permits a treatment of different types of boundary problems in an unified way. In particular we obtain a smooth transition to the infinitesimal version by using a current with a one point support.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0704.0433,
title = {A variational formulation of electrodynamics with external sources},
author = {Antonio De Nicola and Wlodzimierz M. Tulczyjew},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0704.0433},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
23 pages, to appear in Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. (IJGMMP)