Paper 3, Section II, C

Electrodynamics
Part II, 2009

A particle of charge of qq moves along a trajectory ya(s)y^{a}(s) in spacetime where ss is the proper time on the particle's world-line.

Explain briefly why, in the gauge aAa=0\partial_{a} A^{a}=0, the potential at the spacetime point xx is given by

Aa(x)=μ0q2πdsdyadsθ(x0y0(s))δ((xcyc(s))(xdyd(s))ηcd)A^{a}(x)=\frac{\mu_{0} q}{2 \pi} \int d s \frac{d y^{a}}{d s} \theta\left(x^{0}-y^{0}(s)\right) \delta\left(\left(x^{c}-y^{c}(s)\right)\left(x^{d}-y^{d}(s)\right) \eta_{c d}\right)

Evaluate this integral for a point charge moving relativistically along the zz-axis, x=y=0x=y=0, at constant velocity vv so that z=vt.z=v t .

Check your result by starting from the potential of a point charge at rest

A=0ϕ=μ0q4π(x2+y2+z2)1/2\begin{aligned} \mathbf{A} &=0 \\ \phi &=\frac{\mu_{0} q}{4 \pi\left(x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}\right)^{1 / 2}} \end{aligned}

and making an appropriate Lorentz transformation.