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When I'm calculating the divergence of a cylinder with uniform magnetic field ($B=K=\text{constant}$) according to the formula of divergence in cylindrical coordinates I'm getting the same constant value as the divergence.

$$\nabla\cdot B=K.$$

But from the physical explanation of divergence it should be 0 in a uniform field. What's the loophole here?

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    $\begingroup$ Just because you are stating that a cylinder has a B-field" that is homogeneous and therefore its divergence is not zero does not mean that there is a loophole, instead it means that such magnetic flux density field does not exist! You can imagine (even approximately make) a cylindrically homogeneous polarization field M but its associated B -field is not constant and will have 0 divergence. $\endgroup$
    – hyportnex
    Commented Aug 13 at 14:12
  • $\begingroup$ I have the same idea of such field not existing,but when searching it on Google made me confused.Thanks for clarifying. $\endgroup$
    – Sch
    Commented Aug 13 at 14:36
  • $\begingroup$ how? is $\vec B = B\hat z$ for $\rho \le R$? $\endgroup$
    – JEB
    Commented Aug 13 at 15:16

1 Answer 1

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You wrote $B=K$ but this is not a correct way to describe the magnetic field, the magnetic field is a vector. In cylindrical coordinates, you could have $\vec{B}=K\hat{r}$, $\vec{B}=K\hat{\varphi}$ or $\vec{B}=K\hat{z}$. Now, the divergence operator in cylindrical coordinates would imply, for each case

$$\nabla \cdot \vec{B} = \frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial(rB_r)}{\partial r}=\frac{K}{r}, \ \nabla \cdot \vec{B}=\frac{1}{r}\frac{\partial B_{\varphi}}{\partial \varphi}=0, \ \nabla\cdot \vec{B}=\frac{\partial B_z}{\partial z}=0.$$

As you can see, for two of those magnetic fields the divergence is zero, while the first one has a non-zero divergence. This implies that the first option is not a possible magnetic field in a cylindrical configuration.

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