Space-time Curvature of Classical Electromagnetism

We explore the intimate connection between spacetime geometry and electrodynamics. This link is already implicit in the constitutive relations between the field strengths and excitations, which are an essential part of the axiomatic structure of electromagnetism, clearly formulated via integration theory and differential forms. We briefly review the foundations of electromagnetism based on charge and magnetic flux conservation, the Lorentz force and the constitutive relations...

A new geometry, called General geometry, is constructed. It is proven that its the most simplest special case is geometry underlying Electromagnetism. Another special case is Riemannian geometry. Action for electromagnetic field and Maxwell equations are derived from curvature function of geometry underlying Electromagnetism. It is shown that equation of motion for a particle interacting with electromagnetic field coincides exactly with equation for geodesics of geometry unde...

It is shown that the pre-metric approach to Maxwell's equations provides an alternative to the traditional Einstein-Maxwell unification program, namely, that electromagnetism and gravitation are unified in a different way that makes the gravitational field a consequence of the electromagnetic constitute properties of spacetime, by way of the dispersion law for the propagation of electromagnetic waves.

Interesting phenomena and problems arising from the coupling of large-scale electromagnetic fields and spacetime curvature, are introduced and studied within this thesis. From electromagnetic wave propagation in curved spacetime to envisaging a gravito-electromagnetic equivalence on large scales; from magnetic fields' cosmic evolution, and magnetised gravitational collapse in astrophysical environments, to the interaction between electromagnetic and gravitational radiation; t...

Coupling the Maxwell tensor to the Riemann-Christoffel curvature tensor is shown to lead to a geometricized theory of electrodynamics. While this geometricized theory leads directly to the classical Maxwell equations, it also extends their physical interpretation by giving charge density, mass density and the four-velocity that describes their motions geometric definitions. Assuming the existence of a conserved energy-momentum tensor, all solutions to the geometricized theory...

It is common practice to take for granted the equality (up to the constant $\varepsilon_0$) of the electric displacement ($\bf{D}$) and electric ($\bf{E}$) field vectors in vacuum. The same happens with the magnetic field ($\bf{H}$) and the magnetic flux density ($\bf{B}$) vectors (up to the constant $\mu_0^{-1}$). The fact that gravity may change this by effectively inducing dielectric or magnetic responses to the primary fields is commonly overlooked. It is the purpose of t...

We revisit the relativistic coupling between gravity and electromagnetism, putting particularly into question the status of the latter; whether it behaves as a source or as a form of gravity on large scales. Considering a metric-affine framework and a simple action principle, we find out that a component of gravity, the so-called homothetic curvature field, satisfies both sets of Maxwell equations. Therefore, we arrive at a gravito-electromagnetic equivalence analogous to the...

We show that the Maxwell equations describing an electromagnetic wave are a mathematical consequence of the Einstein equations for the same wave. This fact is significant for the problem of the Einsteinian metrics corresponding to the electromagnetic waves.

In this paper we revisit the motivation and construction of a unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism, following Weyl's insights regarding the appealing potential connection between the gauge invariance of electromagnetism and the conformal invariance of the gravitational field. We highlight that changing the local symmetry group of spacetime permits to construct a theory in which these two symmetries are combined into a putative gauge symmetry but with second-order fi...

Following the line of the history, if by one side the electromagnetic theory was consolidated on the 19th century, the emergence of the special and the general relativity theories on the 20th century opened possibilities of further developments, with the search for the unification of the gravitation and the electromagnetism on a single unified theory. Some attempts to the geometrization of the electromagnetism emerged in this context, where these first models resided strictly...