Pith. sign in

REVIEW

Definition of electric and magnetic fields in curved spacetime

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2303.07562 v2 pith:PEBC2YHA submitted 2023-03-14 gr-qc astro-ph.HEhep-th

Definition of electric and magnetic fields in curved spacetime

classification gr-qc astro-ph.HEhep-th
keywords framechoicecurveddefinitionelectricfieldsfour-vectorliterature
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

Defining the electric and magnetic field vectors in curved spacetime requires a proper choice of the observer's frame four-vector. Related literature shows that this fundamental issue in physics still needs to be properly resolved. In recent literature on using electromagnetic means to detect gravitational waves, an ad hoc definition based on regarding $F_{ab}$ with two covariant indices as the special relativistic one is popular. We show that by assigning physical fields to tensor components in that way, one cannot identify the frame four-vector allowing such a choice, thus failing to properly define the external charge and current densities in that frame. We propose the normal frame as the proper one. In this frame, the weak gravity corrections appear as the effective polarizations and magnetizations in both the homogeneous and inhomogeneous parts of Maxwell equations.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.