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Using the Maxwell equations, one can see that the electromagnetic stress–energy tensor (defined above) satisfies the following differential equation, relating it to the electromagnetic tensor and the current four-vector , + = or , + =, which expresses the conservation of linear momentum and energy by electromagnetic interactions.
Other equations in physics, such as Gauss's law of the electric field and Gauss's law for gravity, have a similar mathematical form to the continuity equation, but are not usually referred to by the term "continuity equation", because j in those cases does not represent the flow of a real physical quantity.
The term "Maxwell's equations" is often also used for equivalent alternative formulations. Versions of Maxwell's equations based on the electric and magnetic scalar potentials are preferred for explicitly solving the equations as a boundary value problem, analytical mechanics, or for use in quantum mechanics.
The differential forms of these equations require that there is always an open neighbourhood around the point to which they are applied, otherwise the vector fields and H are not differentiable. In other words, the medium must be continuous[no need to be continuous][This paragraph need to be revised, the wrong concept of "continuous" need to be ...
The inhomogeneous Maxwell equation leads to the continuity equation: =, = implying conservation of charge. Maxwell's laws above can be generalised to curved spacetime by simply replacing partial derivatives with covariant derivatives:
An elegant and intuitive way to formulate Maxwell's equations is to use complex line bundles or a principal U(1)-bundle, on the fibers of which U(1) acts regularly. The principal U(1)- connection ∇ on the line bundle has a curvature F = ∇ 2 , which is a two-form that automatically satisfies d F = 0 and can be interpreted as a field strength.
Because of the linearity of Maxwell's equations in a vacuum, solutions can be decomposed into a superposition of sinusoids. This is the basis for the Fourier transform method for the solution of differential equations. The sinusoidal solution to the electromagnetic wave equation takes the form
In physics (specifically electromagnetism), Gauss's law, also known as Gauss's flux theorem (or sometimes Gauss's theorem), is one of Maxwell's equations. It is an application of the divergence theorem , and it relates the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field .