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The electromagnetic radiation whose decay violates the inverse-square law: detailed mathematical treatment of an experimentally realized example

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Ardavan, Houshang 

Abstract

jats:pI analyse and numerically evaluate the radiation field generated by an experimentally realized embodiment of an electric polarization current whose rotating distribution pattern moves with linear speeds exceeding the speed of light in vacuum. I find that the flux density of the resulting emission (i) has a dominant value and is linearly polarized within a sharply delineated radiation beam whose orientation and polar width are determined by the range of values of the linear speeds of the rotating source distribution, and (ii) decays with the distance jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline1" /> jats:tex-mathd</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> from the source as jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline2" /> jats:tex-math𝛼d−𝛼</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> in which the value of jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline3" /> jats:tex-math𝛼𝛼</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> lies between jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline4" /> jats:tex-math1</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> and jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline5" /> jats:tex-math2</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> (instead of being equal to jats:inline-formula jats:alternatives <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0022377819000382_inline6" /> jats:tex-math2</jats:tex-math> </jats:alternatives> </jats:inline-formula> as in a conventional radiation) across the beam. In that the rate at which boundaries of the retarded distribution of such a source change with time depends on its duration monotonically, this is an intrinsically transient emission process: temporal rate of change of the energy density of the radiation generated by it has a time-averaged value that is negative (instead of being zero as in a conventional radiation) at points where the envelopes of the wave fronts emanating from the constituent volume elements of the source distribution are cusped. The difference in the fluxes of power across any two spheres centred on the source is in this case balanced by the change with time of the energy contained inside the shell bounded by those spheres. These results are relevant not only to long-range transmitters in communications technology but also to astrophysical objects containing rapidly rotating neutron stars (such as pulsars) and to the interpretation of the energetics of the multi-wavelength emissions from sources that lie at cosmological distances (such as radio and gamma-ray bursts). The analysis presented in this paper is self-contained and supersedes my earlier works on this problem.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

astrophysical plasmas, plasma applications

Journal Title

JOURNAL OF PLASMA PHYSICS

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0022-3778
1469-7807

Volume Title

85

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)