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Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Average of a magnetic field in D dimensions

I solve problem 5.57 in Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics. This problem asks to calculate the average of a magnetic field over a ball; I solve it in D3 space dimensions.
The average of the magnetic field over a ball B with radius R is Fij av=1|B|rRdx Fij with |B| the volume of the ball. Hence, Fij av=1|B|rRdx iAj(ij) In D dimensions, the potential is given by A(x)=1AJ(y)||xy||D2dy with A the area of the sphere SD1 with radius 1. Therefore Fij av=1A|B|dy Jj(y)rRdx xi1||xy||D2(ij)=1A|B|dy Jj(y)r=Rdx n(x)||xy||D2(ij) with n the unit vector perpendicular on the sphere pointing outwards. I calculated the latter integral in a previous blog post r=Rdx n(x)||yx||D2={D2DAyif ||y||RD2DAyRD||y||Dif ||y||R
Case 1: suppose all current is inside the ball with radius R
Then ||y||R for all y and therefore Fij av=1A|B|dy Jj(y)D2DAyi(ij)=D2D2|B|Mij with the magnetic moment defined as Mij=dx xiJj Case 2: suppose all current is outside the ball with radius R
Then ||y||R for all y and therefore Fij av=1A|B|dy Jj(y)D2DAyi RD||y||D(ij) The Biot-Savart law in D dimensions is Fij(x)=1Ady Jj(y)()(D2)||xy||D(xiyi)(ij) thus Fij(0)=D2Ady yiJj(y)||y||D(ij) thus Fij av=1|B|ADFij(0)RD and finally Fij av=Fij(0) All in all the result is thus Fij av={D2D2|B|Mijif all current is inside the ballFij(0)if all current is outside the ball
Remarks
This calculation does not provide much insight. I think there should be a quicker way to obtain the short final result. What I do not like is that on the one hand, I use an explicit solution (1) of Maxwell's equation, and on the other hand, I calculate the integral (2) by solving a partial differential equation which is quite similar to Maxwell's equations (see previous blog post). I think that it should be possible to obtain the result (3) only using Maxwell's equations, not using explicit solutions of Maxwell's equations and messy integrals. Please leave a comment if you know a shorter method to obtain (3).

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