The Secret Life of the Dipole

We show that attempts to modify the force on a magnetic dipole by introducing either hidden momentum or internal forces are not correct. The standard textbook result ${\bf F=\nabla(\bmu\cdot B)}$ is correct even in the presence of time dependent electromagnetic fields. Using this expression for the force, overall momentum (the sum of mechanical and electromagnetic momentum) is conserved in changing electromagnetic fields.

A unified and fully relativistic treatment of the interaction of the electric and magnetic dipole moments of a particle with the electromagnetic field is given. New forces on the particle due to the combined effect of electric and magnetic dipoles are obtained. Four new experiments are proposed, three of which would observe topological phase shifts.

The total linear electromagnetic field momentum $\mathbf P_{\mathrm{em}}$ of a stationary electric dipole $\mathbf p$ in a static magnetic field $\mathbf B$ is considered. The expression $\mathbf P_{\mathrm{em}} = \frac12\mathbf B \times \mathbf p$, which has previously been implied to hold in all static magnetic field situations, is not valid in general. The contribution of the electromagnetic momentum of the fringing fields of the dipole is discussed. It is shown that when ...

In 1967 Shockley and James addressed the situation of a magnet in an electric field. The magnet is at rest and contains electromagnetic momentum, but there was no obvious mechanical momentum to balance this for momentum conservation. They concluded that some sort of mechanical momentum, which they called "hidden momentum", was contained in the magnet and ascribed this momentum to relativistic effects, a contention that was apparently confirmed by Coleman and Van Vleck. Since ...

The force on electric and magnetic dipoles moving in vacuo is discussed in the general case of time-variable non-uniform fields and time-variable dipole moments, to first order in v/c and neglecting radiation reaction. Emphasis is given to the symmetry between electric and magnetic dipoles, justifying in general Amp\`ere's equivalence principle, and showing that the difference between gilbertian and amperian dipoles (in vacuo) is only a question of interpretation. The express...

The interaction of the electric and magnetic dipole moments of a particle with the electromagnetic field is investigated in an approach that deals with four-dimensional (4D) geometric quantities. The new commutation relations for the 4D orbital and intrinsic angular momentums and also for the 4D dipole moments are introduced. The expectation value of the quantum 4-force, which holds in any frame, is worked out in terms of them. In contrast to it the whole calculation in [1] (...

For a monopole, the analogue of the Lorentz equation in matter is shown to be f = g (H - v cross D). Dual-symmetric Maxwell equations, for matter containing hidden magnetic charges in addition to electric ones, are given. They apply as well to ordinary matter if the particles possess T-violating electric dipole moments. Two schemes of experiments for the detection of such moments in macroscopic pieces of matter are proposed.

The interaction between point charge and magnetic dipole is usually considered only for the case of a rigid ferromagnetic dipole (constant-current): here the analysis of force, momentum and energy (including the energy provided by the internal current generator) is generalised to any magnetic dipole behaviour: rigid, paramagnetic, diamagnetic or superconducting (perfectly diamagnetic).

Standard lore holds that magnetic forces are incapable of doing mechanical work. More precisely, the claim is that whenever it appears that a magnetic force is doing work, the work is actually being done by another force, with the magnetic force serving only as an indirect mediator. However, the most familiar instances of magnetic forces acting in everyday life, such as when bar magnets lift other bar magnets, appear to present manifest evidence of magnetic forces doing work....

The resolution of Mansuripur's paradox appears in numerous papers in the physics literature, preserves the Lorentz force but depends on the concept of hidden momentum. Here I propose a different resolution based on the overlooked fact that the charge-magnetic dipole system contains linear and angular electromagnetic field momentum. The time rate of change of the field angular momentum in the frame through which the system is moving cancels that due to the charge-electric dipo...