Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Electric fields are commonly visualized with field line diagrams, which only unambiguously specify the field's direction. We consider two simple questions. First, can one deduce if an electric field is conservative, as required, e.g., in electrostatics, from its field lines alone? Second, are there conservative electric fields with straight field lines, besides the familiar textbook examples with spherical, cylindrical, or planar symmetry? We give a self-contained introduction to the differential geometry required to answer these questions, assuming only vector calculus background.
Source: American Journal of Physics
DOI: 10.1119/5.0207201
Authors: Kevin Zhou, Tomáš Brauner
Institutions: University of California, Berkeley, University of Stavanger
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4407760660