1-18-2021

10.30-11.30 AM

Magnetostatics
by
Rajendra Singh
rsingh1_2@yahoo.com
Example
Find the vector potential of an infinite solenoid with n turns per unit length, radius R & current I.

Since the current itself extends to infinity, cannot be used. We have to

opt an alternative:
Therefore, we find
where φ is the flux of B through the loop in question.
This is reminiscent of Ampere's law in the integral form

If symmetry permits, we can determine A from φ .

The present problem (with a uniform longitudinal magnetic field μ0nI inside the solenoid and no field outside) is analogous
to the Ampere's law problem of a fat wire carrying a uniformly distributed current. The vector potential is "circumferential"
(it mimics the magnetic field of the wire); using a circular “Amperian loop" at radius s inside the solenoid, we have
These results can be checked by evaluating
Summary of relations among different parameters in Magnetostatic
The relations among the three fundamental quantities of magnetostatics: the current density J,
the magnetic field B and vector potential A is summarized in the fig. given below:

Boundary Conditions
Just as the electric field suffers a discontinuity at a surface charge,
so the magnetic field is discontinuous at a surface current.
Only the tangential component changes. If we apply ,
in the integral form

for a thin box on the surface (Fig. ), we get

For the tangential components, an amperian loop running
perpendicular to the current (Fig. ) yields

The component of B, parallel to the surface but perpendicular to the current is

discontinuous in the amount μo K. A similar amperian loop running parallel to the current
reveals that the parallel component is continuous. These results can be summarized in a
single formula:
 Like the scalar potential in electrostatics, the vector potential is continuous across any boundary:

guarantees that the normal component is continuous, and V x A = B, in the form

This indicates that the tangential component is continuous as φ is zero for thin box.

But the derivative of A inherits the discontinuity of B:

 Multipole Expansion of the Vector Potential
To approximate formula for the vector potential of a localized current distribution, valid at distant points ( a multipole
expansion, see fig ), the potential in the form of a power series in 1/r, where r is the distance to the point in question; if r is
sufficiently large, the series will be dominated by the lowest nonvanishing contribution, and the higher terms can be ignored.

For points well outside , Є is much less than 1, and this invites a binomial expansion:
In the last step I have collected together like powers of (r' / r) and find that their coefficient are Legendre polynomials,
which is written as
Accordingly, the vector potential of a current loop can be written as

As in the multipole expansion of V, we call the first term (which goes like 1/r) the monopole term, the second (which goes
like l/r2 ) dipole, the third quadrupole, and so on.
Now, it happens that the magnetic monopole term is always zero, as there is magnetic monopole:
In the absence of any monopole contribution, the dominant term is the dipole (except
in the rare case where it, too, vanishes):
This integral can be rewritten in a more illuminating way using corollaries of
fundamental integral theorems : let T = c . r in

Let v = cT in Stokes' theorem

Which gives:

where m is the magnetic dipole moment:

Here a is the "vector area" of the loop, for flat surface it becomes scalar.
Binomial theorem

Let us consider following expressions: , ,

and , now analyse the pattern;

Exponent of a goes like 3,2,1,0. likewise, the exponent of b goes 0,1,2,3. so we get

If we number the terms from 0 to n then we can write the expression as

This is about power of the two factors and if we look at co-efficients

They make Pascal triangle:
With this analysis, we can write for an exponent of 4 as:

The co-efficients fro Pascal trangle is written as :

The “!” means factorial

Putting all together: we get

In our case the n is -1/2 and we can get