Electrodynamics

Lienard Witchert potential

Jnana Ranjan Das
Student ID:DU2018MSc0159
MSc Physics,II Semester
Assam Don Bosco University
11 May 2019

1
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude towards my professor "Mr parag Bhat-
tacharya", who gave me the opportunity to do this wonderful presentation of
"Lienard Witchert potential". Who also helped me in completing my presenta-
tion. I am really thankful to him.
Secondly I would also like to thank all my friends who helped me a lot in final-
izing this presentation within limited time frame.

2
Contents
Acknowledgement 2

Objective 4

Introduction 5

Discussion 6
Retarded Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Comparision of retarded potential with original equation . . . . . . . . 6
Lienard Wiechert Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Inference 8

References 9

3
Objective
To introduce the ideas of retarded time and retarded position and use them to
obtain an expression of scalar and vector potential that avoids instantaneous
change of potential in field points using only classical ideas.

4
Introduction
The Lienard Wiechert potentials describe the classical electromagnetic effect
of a moving electric point charge in terms of a vector potential and a scalar
potential in the Lorentz gauge. These expressions were developed in part by
Alfred-Marie Lienard in 1898 and independently by Emil Wiechert in 1900.

5
Discussion
The retarded potentials are the electromagnetic potentials for the electromag-
netic field generated by time-varying electric current or charge distributions in
the past.

Retarded Time
It is the time required by the electromagnetic news to reach the field point from
source

tr = t −
r
c
Where
t r : retarded time
t: time of measurement
c: speed of light
r : distance from source

Comparision of retarded potential with original equation

Initially
1 ρ(r 0 ) 0
Z
V (r ) = dτ
4π²0 r
µ0 J (r 0 ) 0
Z
~
A(r ) = dτ
4π r
After applying the retarded time we have,
1 ρ(r 0 , t r ) 0
Z
V (r, t ) = dτ (1)
4π²0 r
µ0 J (r 0 , t r ) 0
Z
~
A(r, t ) = dτ (2)
4π r
The reason it all works out is because they both satisfy the following equation
which came from Maxwell’s equation
ρ
ä2 V = −
²0
ä2 A = −µ0 J
2
δ
where, ∇2 − c12 δt 2 =ä
2

6
Lienard Wiechert Potential

L0 L0 − L
=
c v
L
L0 =
1 − vc

1 ρ(r 0 , t r ) d τ0
Z
V (r, t ) =
4π²0 r³
1 − ·v
´
r̂c
1 qc
V (r, t ) = (3)
r r
4π²0 c − v
µ J (r , t ) d τ
0 0
Z
~
A(r, t ) =
0 r
4π r ³1 − r̂ ·v
c
´

µ0 qc v
~
A(r, t ) = (4)
r r
4π c − v
Using equation (3) and (4)
v
~
A(r, t ) = V (r, t )
c2

7
Inference
As seen from the expression of Lienard Wiechert potential, it reduces to the
classical equations of scalar potential and vector potential in the regime of low
speeds and also they satisfy all the spatial constraints.

8
References
. Introduction to Electrodynamics by D.J Griffiths - Fourth edition

. Wikipedia