diff --git a/Physlib.lean b/Physlib.lean index bcb7d0759..537f90be8 100644 --- a/Physlib.lean +++ b/Physlib.lean @@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Basic public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Charge.ChargeUnit public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Current.CircularCoil public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Current.InfiniteWire +public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Distributional.Basic public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Dynamics.Basic public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Dynamics.CurrentDensity public import Physlib.Electromagnetism.Dynamics.Hamiltonian diff --git a/Physlib/Electromagnetism/Distributional/Basic.lean b/Physlib/Electromagnetism/Distributional/Basic.lean new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4cfcd5076 --- /dev/null +++ b/Physlib/Electromagnetism/Distributional/Basic.lean @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +/- +Copyright (c) 2026 Joseph Tooby-Smith. All rights reserved. +Released under Apache 2.0 license as described in the file LICENSE. +Authors: Joseph Tooby-Smith +-/ +module + +public import Physlib.SpaceAndTime.SpaceTime.Derivatives +public import Physlib.Mathematics.VariationalCalculus.HasVarAdjDeriv +/-! + +# Distributional Electromagnetic Potential + +## i. Overview + +In electromagnetism, charge and current distributions are often idealised as objects +such as point particles, infinitely thin wires, and charged surfaces. These idealisations +are not compatible with the usual demand that physical quantities be specified by a +well-defined value at each point in space: a point charge, for instance, has no finite +value at its location, and the field it sources diverges there. + +One way to deal with this is to smear out the idealised objects themselves, replacing a +point charge by a narrow Gaussian distribution and so on. The approach adopted in this +module abandons the premise that physical quantities are defined by +their pointwise values at all. From the point of view of physics this costs nothing, since +no real measuring device probes a single mathematical point; every device has some finite +spatial extent and some smooth response profile across that extent. The most one can ask of +a physical quantity is that it return a well-defined reading for each such response +profile, and that the assignment satisfy two basic conditions: linearity, expressing that +combining two response profiles into a single device adds the readings, and continuity, +expressing that a small change to the response profile produces only a small change to the +reading. Taking the response profiles to be Schwartz maps — smooth functions which, +together with all their derivatives, decay faster than any polynomial at infinity — yields +the mathematical object that captures this picture: a *tempered distribution*, a +continuous linear map sending each Schwartz map to a number, vector, or similar value. + +The simplest tempered distributions are those associated with ordinary smooth functions. +A smooth function `f` defines the distribution `φ ↦ ∫ f x * φ x dx`, the weighted average +of `f` against the response profile `φ`. This rule is no longer indexed by the pointwise +values of `f`, but it does not throw any of them away: the function `f` can be recovered +from the distribution it defines. More generally, although a tempered distribution is not +*defined* by its values at points, it may still *have* well-defined values at points, and +those values are extractable when they exist. The distributional point of view does not +erase pointwise information where it is available; it simply refuses to demand it where +it is not. + +The electric field of a point charge illustrates both sides of this. The charge itself is +the Dirac delta `q δ(x - x₀)`, the tempered distribution sending each test function `φ` to +`q · φ(x₀)`: physically, the reading of a device with profile `φ` placed near the charge +is `q` weighted by the value of the profile at the location of the charge, exactly as +intuition suggests. The field it sources is the tempered distribution +`Eᵈ : φ ↦ ∫ E x · φ x dx`, where `E` is the Coulomb field +`E(x) = q (x - x₀) / (4π ε₀ |x - x₀|³)`. Away from `x₀` this field is smooth and has a +perfectly well-defined value at every point, and the distribution `Eᵈ` agrees with it +there; only at the location of the charge, where `E` diverges, is no pointwise value +available. The distributional formulation is precisely what allows the global object to be +defined in spite of this single bad point. + +Derivatives also continue to make sense in this framework, but they are defined by +integration by parts. For a tempered distribution `f`, the derivative `∂f` is the +distribution acting on test functions by `(∂f) φ := - f (∂φ)`. When `f` is smooth this +reproduces the ordinary derivative — the boundary terms in the integration by parts vanish +because Schwartz functions decay rapidly — but it also assigns a meaningful derivative to +objects such as the step function, whose distributional derivative is the Dirac delta. +This is what allows Maxwell's equations to retain their differential form even when the +sources are singular. + +Not every classical construction survives the move to distributions, however. +This is because in general, one does not have access to the pointwise values of the distributions, +and many classical constructions rely on these. + he Lagrangian density `ℒ = - Aᵤ Jᵘ - ¼ Fᵤᵥ Fᵘᵛ` is a notable casualty: it relies on +pointwise products of distributions (`A` with `J`, and `F` with itself), and in general +the product of two distributions is not defined. For a point charge, for instance, both +`A` and `J` are singular at the location of the charge, and their product has no +distributional meaning. + +Other classical constructions need only to be reformulated. Consider the flux of `E` out +of a surface `S`, classically `∫_S E · dA`. The natural distributional analogue is the +flux *weighted by a test function* `φ`, notionally `- ∫ E x · ∇ φ x dx`. Here `φ` plays +the role of a smoothed-out version of the region `V` enclosed by `S`. + +This does not mean the classical flux is lost. In the same way that a tempered +distribution may have well-defined values at points without being defined by them, it may +have a well-defined flux through a surface. Whenever +`E` is regular enough on `S` for `∫_S E · dA` to make sense — for instance when `S` +avoids any singularities of `E`, as for any sphere not centred on a point charge — the +weighted fluxes converge to this classical value as `φ` is sharpened, and the two notions +agree. The weighted formulation is what allows the flux to be discussed generally, +including in cases where the surface meets a singularity and the classical integral is +not directly available. + +In this setting Gauss's law takes a particularly clean form: the weighted flux equals the +charge measured with the same weighting, up to a factor of `1/ε₀`. Notionally, +`- ∫ E x · ∇ φ x dx = ∫ ρ x φ x dx / ε₀`. Because distributional derivatives are defined +by integration by parts, this 'integral' form is exactly equivalent to the differential +form `∇ · E = ρ / ε₀`, with no separate passage between the two. + +For points `x` where both `ρ` is defined, this distributional Gauss's law +implies that `∇ · E x = ρ x / ε₀`, as one would expect. + +-/