Let us consider a grounded conducting sphere with radius r and a point charge e at a distance R>r from the center of the sphere. For simplicity, we can choose the sphere to be centered at the origin and the charge to be on the z axis at (0,0,−R).
This problem can be solved by the method of image charges, i.e. by replacing the sphere with another point charge q=−er/R at (0,0,−r2/R). Indeed, the resulting electrostatic potential Φ(x,y,z)=e4π[x2+y2+(z+R)2]1/2−er4πR[x2+y2+(z+r2/R)2]1/2 solves the Poisson equation ΔΦ=−eδ(x,y,z+R) with boundary condition Φ=0at |x|=r. Furthermore, the charge surface density on the sphere is given by −(∂Φ∂ρ)ρ=r=−er4π(R/r)2−1(r2+2rRcosθ+R2)3/2 in spherical coordinates ρ,θ,ϕ.
We might also tackle this problem by exploiting the conformal symmetry electromagnetism: the action ∫d4x√−gFμνFμν−∫d4x√−gAμjμ is invariant under local Weyl rescalings gμν↦Ω2gμν if Aμ↦Aμ,jμ↦Ω−4jμ. Performing a special conformal transformation with parameter bμ=(0,0,0,1/r), i.e. t′=tσ(t,x),x′=xσ(t,x),y′=yσ(t,x),z′=z−(x2−t2)/rσ(t,x) with σ(0,x)=1−2z/r+(x2−t2)/r2 we see that the sphere in the un-primed space corresponds to the plane z′=−r2 in the primed space. The corresponding conformal factor can be read off the transformation rule g′00=(∂t′∂t)2g00=g00σ2(0,x)at t=0. Hence, g′μν=σ2gμν and the Weyl rescaling needed to go back to the original Minkowski metric gμν is g′μν↦σ−2g′μν. This gives Ω=1/σ.
Now I would like to find the rule for transforming the charge e and its image q=−er2/R. Assuming that a point-like charge e at x0 scale as eσ(0,x0)1/2 under conformal transformations, e⟼e′=eσ(0,0,0,−R)1/2=e1+R/r and we get a charge e′ at z′=−rR/(r+R); then, the image q′ of e′ with respect to the plane is q′=−e′=−e1+R/r at z′=−r2/(R+r). And the indeed the matching is correct, because the conformal mapping of q according to the above rule is precisely q⟼q′=qσ(0,0,0,−r2/R)1/2=−e1+R/r at z′=−r2/(R+r).
My question is, why is the above transformation rule for e hold? Naively I would have expected j0(x)=eδ(x−x0)⟼Ω−4∂t′∂teδ(x(x′)−x0)=σ4σ−1σ−3eδ(x′−x′0) but this would mean that they do not transform...
No comments:
Post a Comment