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Optical Metric
The optical metric was defined by German theoretical physicist Walter Gordon in 1923 to study the geometrical optics in curved space-time filled with moving dielectric materials. Let be the normalized (covariant) 4-velocity of the arbitrarily-moving dielectric medium filling the space-time, and assume that the fluid’s electromagnetic properties are linear, isotropic, transparent, nondispersive, and can be summarized by two scalar functions: a dielectric permittivity and a magnetic permeability . Then the optical metric tensor is defined as : \hat_ = g_ \pm \left(1 - \frac \right) u_a u_b, where g_ is the physical metric tensor. The sign of \pm is determined by the metric signature convention used: \pm is replaced with a plus sign (+) for a metric signature (-,+,+,+), while a minus sign (-) is chosen for (+,-,-,-). The inverse (contravariant) optical metric tensor is : \hat^ = g^ \pm (1 - \epsilon\mu) u^a u^b, where is the contravariant 4-velocity of the moving flu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Gordon (physicist)
Walter Gordon (13 August 1893 – 24 December 1939) was a German theoretical physicist. Life Walter Gordon was the son of businessman Arnold Gordon and his wife Bianca Gordon (''nee'' Brann). The family moved to Switzerland in his early years. In 1900 he attended school in St. Gallen and in 1915 he began his studies of mathematics and physics at University of Berlin. He received his doctoral degree in 1921 from Max Planck. In 1922, while still at the University of Berlin, Gordon became the assistant of Max von Laue. In 1925, he worked for some months in Manchester with William Lawrence Bragg and later, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for fiber chemistry in Berlin. In 1926, he moved to Hamburg, where he attained the habilitation in 1929. In 1930 he became a professor. He married a local Hamburg woman, Gertrud Lobbenberg, in 1932. He moved to Stockholm in 1933 because of the political situation in Germany. While at the university he worked on mechanics and mathematical physics. Not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hubble's Law
Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther they are, the faster they are moving away from Earth. The velocity of the galaxies has been determined by their redshift, a shift of the light they emit toward the red end of the visible spectrum. Hubble's law is considered the first observational basis for the expansion of the universe, and today it serves as one of the pieces of evidence most often cited in support of the Big Bang model. The motion of astronomical objects due solely to this expansion is known as the Hubble flow. It is described by the equation , with ''H''0 the constant of proportionality—the Hubble constant—between the "proper distance" ''D'' to a galaxy, which can change over time, unlike the comoving distance, and its speed of separation ''v'', i.e. the derivative of proper distance with respect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kronecker Delta
In mathematics, the Kronecker delta (named after Leopold Kronecker) is a function of two variables, usually just non-negative integers. The function is 1 if the variables are equal, and 0 otherwise: \delta_ = \begin 0 &\text i \neq j, \\ 1 &\text i=j. \end or with use of Iverson brackets: \delta_ = =j, where the Kronecker delta is a piecewise function of variables and . For example, , whereas . The Kronecker delta appears naturally in many areas of mathematics, physics and engineering, as a means of compactly expressing its definition above. In linear algebra, the identity matrix has entries equal to the Kronecker delta: I_ = \delta_ where and take the values , and the inner product of vectors can be written as \mathbf\cdot\mathbf = \sum_^n a_\delta_b_ = \sum_^n a_ b_. Here the Euclidean vectors are defined as -tuples: \mathbf = (a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n) and \mathbf= (b_1, b_2, ..., b_n) and the last step is obtained by using the values of the Kronecker delta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitutive Equation
In physics and engineering, a constitutive equation or constitutive relation is a relation between two physical quantities (especially kinetic quantities as related to kinematic quantities) that is specific to a material or substance, and approximates the response of that material to external stimuli, usually as applied fields or forces. They are combined with other equations governing physical laws to solve physical problems; for example in fluid mechanics the flow of a fluid in a pipe, in solid state physics the response of a crystal to an electric field, or in structural analysis, the connection between applied stresses or loads to strains or deformations. Some constitutive equations are simply phenomenological; others are derived from first principles. A common approximate constitutive equation frequently is expressed as a simple proportionality using a parameter taken to be a property of the material, such as electrical conductivity or a spring constant. However, it i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Isomorphism
In mathematics—more specifically, in differential geometry—the musical isomorphism (or canonical isomorphism) is an isomorphism between the tangent bundle \mathrmM and the cotangent bundle \mathrm^* M of a pseudo-Riemannian manifold induced by its metric tensor. There are similar isomorphisms on symplectic manifolds. The term ''musical'' refers to the use of the symbols \flat (flat) and \sharp (sharp). In covariant and contravariant notation, it is also known as raising and lowering indices. Motivation In linear algebra, a finite-dimensional vector space is isomorphic to its dual but not canonically isomorphic to it. On the other hand a Euclidean vector space, i.e., a finite-dimensional vector space E endowed with an inner product \langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle, is canonically isomorphic to its dual, the isomorphism being given by: \left\} is a moving tangent frame (see also smooth frame) for the ''tangent bundle'' with, as dual frame (see also dual basis), the moving cof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exterior Derivative
On a differentiable manifold, the exterior derivative extends the concept of the differential of a function to differential forms of higher degree. The exterior derivative was first described in its current form by Élie Cartan in 1899. The resulting calculus, known as exterior calculus, allows for a natural, metric-independent generalization of Stokes' theorem, Gauss's theorem, and Green's theorem from vector calculus. If a differential -form is thought of as measuring the flux through an infinitesimal - parallelotope at each point of the manifold, then its exterior derivative can be thought of as measuring the net flux through the boundary of a -parallelotope at each point. Definition The exterior derivative of a differential form of degree (also differential -form, or just -form for brevity here) is a differential form of degree . If is a smooth function (a -form), then the exterior derivative of is the differential of . That is, is the unique -form such that for e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exterior Algebra
In mathematics, the exterior algebra, or Grassmann algebra, named after Hermann Grassmann, is an algebra that uses the exterior product or wedge product as its multiplication. In mathematics, the exterior product or wedge product of vectors is an algebraic construction used in geometry to study areas, volumes, and their higher-dimensional analogues. The exterior product of two vectors u and v, denoted by u \wedge v, is called a bivector and lives in a space called the ''exterior square'', a vector space that is distinct from the original space of vectors. The magnitude of u \wedge v can be interpreted as the area of the parallelogram with sides u and v, which in three dimensions can also be computed using the cross product of the two vectors. More generally, all parallel plane surfaces with the same orientation and area have the same bivector as a measure of their oriented area. Like the cross product, the exterior product is anticommutative, meaning t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Form
In mathematics, differential forms provide a unified approach to define integrands over curves, surfaces, solids, and higher-dimensional manifolds. The modern notion of differential forms was pioneered by Élie Cartan. It has many applications, especially in geometry, topology and physics. For instance, the expression is an example of a -form, and can be integrated over an interval contained in the domain of : :\int_a^b f(x)\,dx. Similarly, the expression is a -form that can be integrated over a surface : :\int_S (f(x,y,z)\,dx\wedge dy + g(x,y,z)\,dz\wedge dx + h(x,y,z)\,dy\wedge dz). The symbol denotes the exterior product, sometimes called the ''wedge product'', of two differential forms. Likewise, a -form represents a volume element that can be integrated over a region of space. In general, a -form is an object that may be integrated over a -dimensional manifold, and is homogeneous of degree in the coordinate differentials dx, dy, \ldots. On an -dimensional manifold, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bi-isotropic Material
In physics, engineering and materials science, bi-isotropic materials have the special optical property that they can rotate the polarization of light in either refraction or transmission. This does not mean all materials with twist effect fall in the bi-isotropic class. The twist effect of the class of bi-isotropic materials is caused by the chirality and non- reciprocity of the structure of the media, in which the electric and magnetic field of an electromagnetic wave (or simply, light) interact in an unusual way. Definition For most materials, the electric field ''E'' and electric displacement field ''D'' (as well as the magnetic field ''B'' and inductive magnetic field ''H'') are parallel to one another. These simple mediums are called isotropic, and the relationships between the fields can be expressed using constants. For more complex materials, such as crystals and many metamaterials, these fields are not necessarily parallel. When one set of the fields are paralle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Displacement
In physics, the electric displacement field (denoted by D) or electric induction is a vector field that appears in Maxwell's equations. It accounts for the effects of free and bound charge within materials. "D" stands for "displacement", as in the related concept of displacement current in dielectrics. In free space, the electric displacement field is equivalent to flux density, a concept that lends understanding of Gauss's law. In the International System of Units (SI), it is expressed in units of coulomb per meter square (C⋅m−2). Definition In a dielectric material, the presence of an electric field E causes the bound charges in the material (atomic nuclei and their electrons) to slightly separate, inducing a local electric dipole moment. The electric displacement field "D" is defined as \mathbf \equiv \varepsilon_ \mathbf + \mathbf, where \varepsilon_ is the vacuum permittivity (also called permittivity of free space), and P is the (macroscopic) density of the pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic Field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to the magnetic field. A permanent magnet's magnetic field pulls on ferromagnetic materials such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets. In addition, a nonuniform magnetic field exerts minuscule forces on "nonmagnetic" materials by three other magnetic effects: paramagnetism, diamagnetism, and antiferromagnetism, although these forces are usually so small they can only be detected by laboratory equipment. Magnetic fields surround magnetized materials, and are created by electric currents such as those used in electromagnets, and by electric fields varying in time. Since both strength and direction of a magnetic field may vary with location, it is described mathematically by a function assigning a vector to each point of space, cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Field
An electric field (sometimes E-field) is the physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles and exerts force on all other charged particles in the field, either attracting or repelling them. It also refers to the physical field for a system of charged particles. Electric fields originate from electric charges and time-varying electric currents. Electric fields and magnetic fields are both manifestations of the electromagnetic field, one of the four fundamental interactions (also called forces) of nature. Electric fields are important in many areas of physics, and are exploited in electrical technology. In atomic physics and chemistry, for instance, the electric field is the attractive force holding the atomic nucleus and electrons together in atoms. It is also the force responsible for chemical bonding between atoms that result in molecules. The electric field is defined as a vector field that associates to each point in space the electrostatic ( Coulomb) for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
