Effect of Thomas Rotation on the Lorentz Transformation of Electromagnetic fields

Lakshya Malhotra, Robert Golub, Eva Kraegeloh, Nima Nouri, Bradley Plaster

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A relativistic particle undergoing successive boosts which are non collinear will experience a rotation of its coordinate axes with respect to the boosted frame. This rotation of coordinate axes is caused by a relativistic phenomenon called Thomas Rotation. We assess the importance of Thomas rotation in the calculation of physical quantities like electromagnetic fields in the relativistic regime. We calculate the electromagnetic field tensor for general three dimensional successive boosts in the particle’s rest frame as well as the laboratory frame. We then compare the electromagnetic field tensors obtained by a direct boost β→ + δβ→ and successive boosts β→ and Δ β→ and check their consistency with Thomas rotation. This framework might be important to situations such as the calculation of frequency shifts for relativistic spin-1/2 particles undergoing Larmor precession in electromagnetic fields with small field non-uniformities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5522
JournalScientific Reports
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Effect of Thomas Rotation on the Lorentz Transformation of Electromagnetic fields'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this