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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

A calculation in magnetostatics

I wanted to calculate the magnetic field generated by a current which flows down the positive z-axis, hits the origin and then spreads out radially over the xy plane, see figure 1.
Figure 1
I started the calculation as follows. First I obtained the magnetic field generated by a semi-infinite wire. If the current comes out of the point 0 (see figure 2), then the magnetic field in point P is [1] \begin{equation}\label{eq:21070108a} B_1(P) = \frac{\mu_0}{4 \pi\ s^2}\left( 1 + \frac{\vec I \cdot \vec P}{||\vec I||\ ||\vec P||} \right) \vec I \times \vec P \end{equation} with s the distance between P and the wire.
Figure 2
The magnetic field B_2 coming from all the currents in the xy plane can be calculated by integrating \eqref{eq:21070108a}. The result is \begin{equation}\label{eq:21070108b} B_2(P) = \frac{\mu_0 I}{4 \pi}\left( \frac{z}{||\vec P||} \pm 1\right)\frac{1}{x^2 + y^2} \hat z \times \vec P \end{equation} The plus sign holds if z < 0, the minus sign if z >0. The vector \hat z is the unit vector pointing in the direction of the z-axis. If I add B_2 to the field coming from the current flowing down the z-axis, some terms cancel and I get the final simple result. \begin{align*} B(P) & = \frac{\mu_0 I}{2 \pi s^2} \hat z \times \vec P\quad\text{if}\quad z>0\\ &=0 \quad\text{if}\quad z <0 \end{align*} with s the distance between P and the z axis. For z>0, B is exactly equal to the magnetic field of an infinite wire! When I saw the final result, I realized it was easy to see that it was correct. Indeed, for z<0 Maxwell's equations are trivially satisfied because the field is zero. For z>0 they are also satisfied because the field is equal to magnetic field of an infinite wire. Finally, the currents in the xy plane are also taken into account correctly. For example, take an Amperian loop as in figure 3.
Figure 3, \gamma_1 is above the xy plane, \gamma_3 is below.
Only the integral over \gamma_1 contributes. Also I know already that Ampère's law is satisfied for z > 0 and the magnetic field is rotationally symmetric. Therefore \int_{\gamma} B \cdot dl = \mu_0 I \frac{\alpha}{2 \pi} with \alpha the angle spanned by the curve \gamma_1

References and comments

[1] This is easily obtained from standard formulas, see for example Example 5.5 in Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics.
[2] It is also easy to generalize the above result to semi-infinite wires that make an angle with the xy plane.

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