English

Complete Lorentz transformation of a charge-current density

General Physics 2021-12-22 v6

Abstract

It is generally assumed in the literature that a Lorentz transformation on a neutral current loop results in a moving current loop with a nonvanishing charge distribution and an electric dipole moment. We show in this paper that this is not, in fact, correct. The derivation that leads to the charge distribution was based on an incomplete Lorentz transformation, which transforms the charge-current four-vector jμ=[ρ(r,t),j(r,t)]j^\mu=[\rho({\bf r},t),{\bf j(r},t)], but not the space-time four-vector xμ=(t,r)x^\mu=(t,{\bf r}). We show that completing the Lorentz transformation by using the variable tt' in the moving frame, rather than keeping the rest frame time variable tt, results in there being no induced charge density and no resulting electric dipole moment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.02912,
  title  = {Complete Lorentz transformation of a charge-current density},
  author = {Jerrold Franklin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.02912},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

This version has added some new discussion, and included a new reference. This version has been published in International Journal of Modern Physics A Vol. 35,2050061 (2020)

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:07:17.283Z