3.II.12A
Part IA, 2006
Define what is meant by an isotropic tensor. By considering a rotation of a second rank isotropic tensor by about the -axis, show that its components must satisfy and . Now consider a second and different rotation to show that must be a multiple of the Kronecker delta, .
Suppose that a homogeneous but anisotropic crystal has the conductivity tensor
where are real constants and the are the components of a constant unit vector . The electric current density is then given in components by
where are the components of the electric field . Show that
(i) if and , then there is a plane such that if lies in this plane, then and must be parallel, and
(ii) if and , then implies .
If , find the value of such that