Physics 505, Classical Electrodynamics

Homework 10
Due Thursday, 18
th
November 2004
Jacob Lewis Bourjaily
Problem 6.2
Consider the charge and current densities for a single point charge q. Formally, these are given by
(x

, t

) = q [x

r(t

)] J(x

, t

) = qv(t

) [x

r(t

)] ,
where r(t

) is the charges position at time t

and v(t

) is its velocity. While evaluating the expressions

involving retarded time, we must put t

= t
ret
= t R(t

)/c, where R = x r(t

) and R = x x

(t

)
inside delta functions.
a) We are to show that
_
d
3
x

[x

r(t
ret
)] =
1

,
where 1 v

R/c, where is evaluated at retarded time.
Recall the trivial identity of the Dirac -function,
[f(x)] =
(x x
0
)
(f/x)|
x=x
0
,
where x
0
is a root of f(x). Setting f(x

) = [x

r(t
ret
)] in the expression above, x
0
is such that x
0
= r(t
ret
). Inserting this directly, we nd
[x

r(t
ret
)] = (x

x
0
)
_

x

(x

r(t
ret
))
_
1
x

=x
0
,
= (x

x
0
)
_
1

x

r(t
ret
)
_
1
x

=x
0
,
= (x

x
0
)
_
1
r
t

_
t
1
c
|x x

(t

)|
__
1
x

=x
0
,
= (x

x
0
)
_
1
r
t
1
c
x x

|x x

|
_
1
x

=x
0
,
= (x

x
0
)
_
1
r
t
1
c
x r(t

)
|x r(t

)|
_
1
,
= (x

x
0
)
_
1 v

R/c
_
1
,
=
(x

x
0
)

_
d
3
x

[x

r(t
ret
)] =
1

o


b) Starting with the Jemenko generalizations of the Coulomb and Biot-Savart laws, we are to use
the expressions for the charge and current densities for a point charge and the result of part
a above to obtain the Heaviside-Feynman expressions for the electric and magnetic elds of a
point charge.
Let us begin with the electric eld. The Jemenko generalization is given by
E(x, t) =
1
4
0
_
d
3
x

_

R
R
2
[(x

, t

)]
ret
+

R
cR
_
(x

, t

)
t

_
ret

1
c
2
R
_
J(x

, t

)
t

_
ret
_
.
1
2 JACOB LEWIS BOURJAILY
Directly inserting our current and charge densities, following out the algebra and
using our result from part a, we have
E(x, t) =
1
4
0
_
d
3
x

_

R
R
2
[(x

, t

)]
ret
+

R
cR
_
(x

, t

)
t

_
ret

1
c
2
R
_
J(x

, t

)
t

_
ret
_
,
=
1
4
0
_
d
3
x

_

R
R
2
q [ (x

r(t

))]
ret
+

R
cR
q
_

t

(x

r(t

))
_
ret

1
c
2
R
q
_

t

v(t

) (x

r(t

))
_
ret
_
,
=
q
4
0
_
d
3
x

_

R
R
2
[ (x

r(t

))]
ret
+

R
cR

t
[ (x

r(t

))]
ret

1
c
2
R

t
[v(t

) (x

r(t

))]
ret
_
,
=
q
4
0
_
_
d
3
x

_

R
R
2
(x

r(t

))
_
ret
+

t
_
d
3
x

_

R
cR
(x

r(t

))
_
ret

t
_
d
3
x

_
1
c
2
R
v(t

) (x

r(t

))
_
ret
_
,
=
q
4
0
__

R
R
2
_
ret
+

t
_

R
cR
_
ret

t
_
1
c
2
R
v(t

)
_
ret
_
,
E(x, t) =
q
4
0
__

R
R
2
_
ret
+

ct
_

R
R
_
ret

c
2
t
_
1
R
v(t

)
_
ret
_
.

o


Notice that in the above, we have used the fact that R does not explicitly depend
on t.
Let us now do the analogous calculation for the magnetic eld. The Jemenko general-
ization is given by
B(x, t) =

0
4
_
d
3
x

_
[J(x

, t

)]
ret

R
R
2
+
_
J(x

, t

)
t

_
ret

R
cR
_
.
Directly inserting our current and charge densities and computing directly, we have
B(x, t) =

0
4
_
d
3
x

_
[J(x

, t

)]
ret

R
R
2
+
_
J(x

, t

)
t

_
ret

R
cR
_
,
=
q
0
4
_
d
3
x

_
[v(t

) (x

r(t

))]
ret

R
R
2
+
_

t

v(t

) (x

r(t

))
_
ret

R
cR
_
,
=
q
0
4
_
_
d
3
x

_
v

R
R
2
(x

r(t

))
_
ret
+

t
_
d
3
x

_
v

R
cR
(x

r(t

))
_
ret
_
,
=
q
0
4
__
v

R
cR
2
_
ret
+

t
_
v

R
cR
_
ret
_
,
B(x, t) =

0
q
4
__
v

R
cR
2
_
ret
+

ct
_
v

R
R
_
ret
_
.