Covariant Irreducible Parametrization of Electromagnetic Fields in Arbitrary Spacetime
Abstract
Description
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.
11 pages, no figures, Will appear in J. Math. Phys., January (2006)
11 pages, no figures, Will appear in J. Math. Phys., January (2006)