Professional Documents
Culture Documents
general these will be objects called Cartesian tensors (since we stick to Cartesian coordinates here) or more generally just
tensors. In this course we avoid a proper definition of tensors and discussions of their general properties.
43
the repetition signals that one should sum over its allowed values (1 to 3 in our case). Thus
3
ai bi ai bi = a1 b1 + a2 b2 + a3b3 = a.b .
(4.1)
i=1
Again, the name of the repeated index is irrelevant: a j b j means exactly the same thing.
Using this convention, we can write the matrix product above, Cb, more briefly still as Ci j b j .
Indices that appear twice and are summed over are called dummy indices. Indices that appear once (more
exactly, once in every term in an equation or expression) are called free. Free indices tell us how many
equations have been compressed into one. For example,
ai b j ck = di jk
stands for 27 equations such as a2 b1 c3 = d213 .
To make the summation convention work we have to stick to one more rule: no index can appear more
than twice. In practice we have to be careful that every time we need an extra index, we only use the same
name as an existing index if we really mean to sum over the possible values of the pair.
Example 4.1. We can easily prove the matrix identity (AB)T = BT AT . Writing the matrix C = AB, we
have
CiTj = C ji = A jk Bki = ATk j BTik = BTik ATk j .
in index notation
Since V = (
V V V
,
,
), we can write the ith component of V as
x1 x2 x3
V
.
xi
i =
and write the gradient as
xi
(V )i = iV.
(4.2)
F1 / x1 + F2/ x2 + F3 / x3 ,
so we can write
F =
Now i x j =
Fi
= i Fi .
xi
(4.3)
xj
. If i = j, this is 1, but if i 6= j, it is 0. We introduce a notation for this, i j .
xi
Kronecker delta
We define an object called the Kronecker delta:
1
i j =
0
if i = j
.
if i 6= j
If written as a matrix, Kronecker delta is just the unit matrix. From the definitions,
1 j a j =
1 j a j = a1
j=1
i j a j =
i j a j = ai.
(4.4)
j=1
ii = ii = 11 + 22 + 33 = 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.
i=1
(a.r) = a,
i (a j x j ) = a j i x j + x j i a j = a j i j = ai
since a being constant implies i a j = 0. The right side is just the index notation for a, of course.
Finally, we add an another new object, the Levi-Civita epsilon, to enable us to handle cross-products.
Levi-Civita epsilon
This is defined by
i jk =
0 otherwise.
[Aside: in n dimensions, we would have to replace cyclic and anticyclic in the above definition by even and
odd.] Thus
123 = 231 = 312 = 1,
1 jk a j bk = 123 a2 b3 + 132 a3 b2 = a2 b3 a3 b2 .
2 jk a j bk = a3 b1 a1b3 ,
Thus
3 jk a j bk = a1 b2 a2 b1 .
i jk a j bk = (a b)i .
(4.5)
i jk
Fk
= i jk j Fk
xj
(4.6)
i jk T jk
So 2i jk T jk
Here i jk could be replaced with anything skew in jk: the outcome is referred to as skew summed with
symmetric is zero.
46
This looks like a trick. To understand it better, it may help to look at a two-dimensional case with a skew
object Ai j . Then
Ai j Ti j = A11 T11 + A12T12 + A21T21 + A22 T22 .
Since A is skew, A11 = A22 = 0. Then substituting A21 = A12 and T21 = T12 the remaining terms cancel.
This argument can be repeated in any number of dimensions but is very laborious to write out. The index
form achieves the same much more economically.
An important identity is
i jk ilm = jl km jm kl .
()
This can be proved by comparing both sides for all possible choices of ( j, k, l, m): e.g. if ( j, k, l, m) =
(1, 2, 1, 2) the left-hand side of () is
11 22 1212 = 1 0 = 1.
A more abstract argument is to note that (a) the product of the epsilons is zero unless the pairs jk and lm
contain the same pair of indices, (b) if the order in the pairs is the same then both epsilons are 1 or both are
1, and the right side is 1, and (c) a similar argument for when jk and lm have opposite orders.
Exercise 4.2. Pick another set of values for ( j, k, l, m) and verify that () holds.
pik m j p = im k j i j km .
i jk j (klm Fl Gm )
= (il jm im jl ) j (Fl Gm )
= m (Fi Gm ) l (Fl Gi )
= Fi (m Gm ) + Gm m Fi Gi (m Fm ) Fm m Gi
=
47
so (F G) = F( G) + (G.)F G( F) (F.)G.
Explanation: Here we are substituting F G for F in (4.6), using (), differentiating the products, and
converting back to vector notation using (4.2) and (4.3).
Exercise 4.3. Using index notation, prove the identity
( f v) = f v + ( f ) v.
(This is, with different names, identity 5 in section 2.5.) Now repeat this exercise, but without using index
notation (i.e. writing out the left-hand sides of the identity in full, and showing that it can be rearranged to
give the right-hand side).
2
Exercise 4.4. Show that
Hence prove that
i (i jk u j vk ) = vk ki j i u j u j jik i vk .
(u v) = v.( u) u.( v).
()
(This is identity 4 in section 2.5.) Now prove identity () without using index notation (i.e. writing out the
left-hand side of the identity in full and showing that this can be rearranged to give the right-hand side). 2
One can prove the remaining identities for derivatives of products or products of derivatives similarly.
Even the harder standard product identities, e.g. the one stated as number 2 in the list in section 2.5,
(u.v) = u ( v) + v ( u) + u.v + v.u
(4.7)
are not very difficult: for this one, we start with the first term on the right, using (4.5) and (4.6), and work
analogously to Examples 4.4 and 4.5 to get
i jk u j (klm l vm ) = u j i v j u j j vi
(4.8)
so
i jk j (klm l Fm )
= (il jm im jl ) j l Fm
= i m Fm l l Fi
=
( F) = ( F) 2F
using (4.6) for the first equality; the second follows from ().
48