English

Conservation of reactive electromagnetic energy in reactive time

Optics 2015-01-08 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

The complex Poynting theorem (CPT) is extended to a canonical time-scale domain (t,s)(t,s). Time-harmonic phasors are replaced by the positive-frequency parts of general fields, which extend analytically to complex time t+ist+is, with s>0s>0 interpreted as a time resolution scale. The real part of the extended CPT gives conservation in tt of a time-averaged field energy, and its imaginary part gives conservation in ss of a time-averaged reactive energy. In both cases, the averaging windows are determined by a Cauchy kernel of width Δt±s\Delta t\sim \pm s. This completes the time-harmonic CPT, whose imaginary part is generally supposed to be vaguely `related to' reactive energy without giving a conservation law, or even an expression, for the latter. The interpretation of ss as reactive time, tracking the leads and lags associated with stored capacitative and inductive energy, gives a simple explanation of the volt-ampere reactive (var) unit measuring reactive power: a var is simply one Joule per reactive second. The related 'complex radiation impedance density' is introduced to represent the field's local reluctance to radiate.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1501.01005,
  title  = {Conservation of reactive electromagnetic energy in reactive time},
  author = {Gerald Kaiser},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.01005},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

2 pages, no figures, paper submitted by invitation to special session on Fundamental Considerations of Electromagnetic Energy and Interactions: Theory and Applications at IEEE APS/URSI 2015 Symposium http://www.2015apsursi.org