How does one write maxwell's equation in 2+1 dimensions? It becomes particularly interesting as the components of 2 forms and 1 form are 3. Are there any sources for this?
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$\begingroup$ What do you mean by $2+1$ dimensions? $2$ space and $1$ time? $\endgroup$– PolaroidDreamsCommented Feb 6, 2019 at 18:07
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$\begingroup$ Yes. 2 space and 1 time. $\endgroup$– user183683Commented Feb 6, 2019 at 18:07
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2$\begingroup$ On Maxwell's electrodynamics in two spatial dimensions $\endgroup$– PolaroidDreamsCommented Feb 6, 2019 at 18:12
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2$\begingroup$ Another useful link $\endgroup$– PolaroidDreamsCommented Feb 6, 2019 at 18:14
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$\begingroup$ Possible duplicates: physics.stackexchange.com/q/352632/2451 , physics.stackexchange.com/q/21678/2451 and links therein. $\endgroup$– Qmechanic ♦Commented Feb 6, 2019 at 19:57
2 Answers
The relativistic version of Maxwell's equations, $$ \partial_\mu \, F^{\mu\nu} = J^\nu$$ (plus the dual equation, see wikipedia if that doesn't ring a bell), works fine with any number of spatial dimensions. Of course, $F^{\mu\nu}$ is the field strength tensor and $J^\mu$ is the relativistic current.
Here's where it gets fun. In 2+1 dimensions $$ F^{\mu\nu} = \left( \begin{array}{ccc} 0 & -E_1 & -E_2 \\ E_1 & 0 & B \\ E_2 & -B & 0 \end{array} \right) . $$ So the electric field is a 2d vector $\vec{E}=(E_1, E_2)$, but there's only one component of the magnetic field: $B$ is a scalar (actually a pseudoscalar)!
That's because fundamentally, $E$ is a spatial vector and $B$ is a spatial "bivector". In 3d a bivector happens to be the same as a "psuedovector", so we tend to incorrectly think of $B$ as a vector quantity. But in other numbers of dimensions that's just not the case. To get a much deeper feel for this, I'd recommend checking out the geometric algebra formulation of electrodynamics (e.g. Ch. 7 of Doran and Lasenby).
The relativistic formulation of electromagnetism repackages Maxwell's equations as
$F^{a} = \int d^{3}x\,j^{b}F^{a}{}_{b}$, where $F_{ab}$ is the Maxwell Tensor given by $F_{ab} = \nabla_{[a}A_{b]}$, and $A$ is the electromagnetic potential. In Four dimensions, it can be shown that the first equation reduces to the normal Lorentz force law, and that the Maxwell Tensor is $F_{0i} = E_{i}$ and $F_{ij} = B^{k}\epsilon_{ijk}$, where $\epsilon_{ijk}$ is the standard Levi-Civita symbol.
Then, generalizing to 2+1 dimensions is easy, because all of these equations just cross over. All that changes is that your vector $A$ only has three components, which will mean that you have a 2-dimensional electric field, and a one-dimensional "magnetic" field.