PHY113: Classical Electrodynamics (2023-24 - semester II)

Tutorial 6 - Date- 15/02/2024

Problems - 6 will not be discussed in the tutorial. You should try to do that yourself and if
you face problem ask the instructor.

1. Two ideal dipoles A and B are kept on xy plane Dipole A lies at the origin, with its dipole moment
p~1 pointing towards ŷ. B is at a distance r from A on the positive x-axis, and its dipole moment p2
is along x̂. What is the torque due to A on B and due to B on A? Are they same? If not, what is
the reason?

2. A point charge q is imbedded at the center of a sphere of linear dielectric material (with susceptibility
χe and radius R). Find the electric field, the polarization, and the bound charge densities, ρb and
σb . What is the total bound charge on the surface? Where is the compensating negative bound
charge located?

3. A very long cylinder, of radius a, carries a uniform polarization P~ perpendicular to its axis. Find
the electric field inside the cylinder. Show that the field “outside” the cylinder can be expressed in
the form
2 
~ r) = a

E(~ 2(P~ · ŝ)ŝ − P~
20 s2

4. Calculate energy W for a sphere of radius R with “frozen-in” uniform polarization P~ . Use both the
following formulae:
ˆ ˆ
0 2 1 
~ ·E

~ dτ .
(a) W = E dτ , (b) W = D
2 all space 2 all space

Comment on the discrepancy between the two answers evaluated by the two expressions written
above.

5. Suppose the field inside a large piece of dielectric is E ~ 0 , so that the electric displacement is D ~0 =
~ ~
0 E0 + P . Now a small spherical cavity is hollowed out of the material. Find the field at the center
~ 0 and P~ . Also find the displacement at the center of the cavity in terms of
of the cavity in terms of E
D0 and P . Assume that the cavity is small enough such that P~ , E
~ ~ ~ 0 , and D
~ 0 are essentially uniform.

6. According to quantum mechanics, the electron cloud for a hydrogen atom in the ground state has
a charge density
q −2r/a
ρ(r) = e
πa3
where q is the charge of the electron and a is the Bohr radius. Find the atomic polarizability of
such an atom.
´ e−ax (a2 x2 +2ax+2)
You may use x2 e−ax dx = − a3
.
~ e (r); then expand the exponential,
(Hint: First calculate the electric field of the electron cloud, E
assuming r  a).