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Covariant Irreducible Parametrization of Electromagnetic Fields in Arbitrary Spacetime

David Sundkvist
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Abstract

We present a new unified covariant description of electromagnetic field properties for an arbitrary space-time. We derive a complete set of irreducible components describing a six-dimensional electromagnetic field from the Maxwell and metric tensors using the symmetry group SL(2,C). For the special case of a flat space-time metric the components are shown to correspond to the scalar invariants of the electromagnetic field, the energy-momentum-stress tensor and in addition, three new tensors expressing physical observables of rank two and four, respectively. We make a physical interpretation of one of the new rank two tensors as describing a classical intrinsic spin of the electromagnetic field.

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David Sundkvist. 2006-01-02. Covariant Irreducible Parametrization of Electromagnetic Fields in Arbitrary Spacetime. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2162107

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