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In mathematics and physics, a tensor field is a function assigning a tensor to each point of a region of a mathematical space (typically a Euclidean space or manifold) or of the physical space. Tensor fields are used in differential geometry , algebraic geometry , general relativity , in the analysis of stress and strain in material object, and ...
Field theories, mathematical descriptions of how field values change in space and time, are ubiquitous in physics. For instance, the electric field is another rank-1 tensor field, while electrodynamics can be formulated in terms of two interacting vector fields at each point in spacetime, or as a single-rank 2-tensor field. [5] [6] [7]
Modern physics uses field theories to explain reality. These fields can be scalar, vectorial or tensorial. An example of a scalar field is the temperature field. An example of a vector field is the wind velocity field. An example of a tensor field is the stress tensor field in a stressed body, used in continuum mechanics.
The stresses inside a solid body or fluid [28] are described by a tensor field. The stress tensor and strain tensor are both second-order tensor fields, and are related in a general linear elastic material by a fourth-order elasticity tensor field. In detail, the tensor quantifying stress in a 3-dimensional solid object has components that can ...
Differential geometry, physics and engineering must often deal with tensor fields on smooth manifolds. The term tensor is sometimes used as a shorthand for tensor field. A tensor field expresses the concept of a tensor that varies from point to point on the manifold.
In general relativity, the metric tensor (in this context often abbreviated to simply the metric) is the fundamental object of study.The metric captures all the geometric and causal structure of spacetime, being used to define notions such as time, distance, volume, curvature, angle, and separation of the future and the past.
The field tensor was first used after the four-dimensional tensor formulation of special relativity was introduced by Hermann Minkowski. The tensor allows related physical laws to be written concisely, and allows for the quantization of the electromagnetic field by the Lagrangian formulation described below .
Tensor calculus has many applications in physics, engineering and computer science including elasticity, continuum mechanics, electromagnetism (see mathematical descriptions of the electromagnetic field), general relativity (see mathematics of general relativity), quantum field theory, and machine learning.