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arXiv · 1504.07311

Structure of Aristotelian Electrodynamics

Ted Jacobson
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Abstract

Aristotelian electrodynamics (AE) describes the regime of a plasma with a very strong electric field that is not shorted out, with charge current determined completely by pair production and the balance of Lorentz 4-force against curvature radiation reaction. Here it is shown how the principal null directions and associated eigenvalues of the field tensor govern AE, and how force-free electrodynamics arises smoothly from AE when the eigenvalues (and therefore the electric field in some frame) vanish. A criterion for validity of AE is proposed in terms of a pair of "field curvature scalars" formed from the first derivative of the principal null directions.

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Ted Jacobson. 2015-04-28. Structure of Aristotelian Electrodynamics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.92.025029

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