Four-dimensional reflection groups and electrostatics
Abstract
We present a new class of electrostatics problems that are exactly solvable by adding finitely many image charges. Given a charge at some location inside a cavity bounded by up to four conducting grounded segments of spheres: if the spheres have a symmetry derived via a stereographic projection from a 4D finite reflection group, then this is a solvable generalization of the familiar problem of a charge inside a spherical cavity. There are 19 three-parametric families of finite groups formed by inversions relative to at most four spheres, each member of each family giving a solvable problem. We solve a sample problem which derives from the reflection group and requires 191 image charges.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1904.04655,
title = {Four-dimensional reflection groups and electrostatics},
author = {Maxim Olshanii and Yuri Styrkas and Dmitry Yampolsky and Vanja Dunjko and Steven G. Jackson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.04655},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
26 pages, 6 figures Submitted to Foundations of Physics