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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
A revised version of the theory of electromagnetism ([1], [2]), combines the classical Maxwell’s equations in vacuum with the mechanics of non-viscous fluids. The resulting equations are similar to those of plasma physics with the exception that the notion of charge and mass are not given a priori. The electromagnetic fields take the classical meaning, while the velocity field represents the flow of information, that is how energy is transported. With these assumptions it is not necessary to define densities of charge and mass as a consequence of existing matter, but these quantities assume an intrinsic validity. Such a modified model allows for a very large space of solutions, strictly including all the classical Maxwell’s solutions. Moreover, it displays numerous conservation and invariance properties, deducible from a standard analysis. Among the solutions, one can have solitary electromagnetic pulses with compact support of almost arbitrary shape, intensity, frequency and polarization. Such a result, never achieved before, reopens the path to a serious discussion on photons, the duality wave-particle and the quantum properties of matter. Since from the new viewpoint electromagnetic radiations actually behave as a fluid, they can be constrained to evolve in bounded regions of space, such as vortex rings. Under suitable hypotheses these waves may effectively give rise to well-localized objects, preserving electrical and magnetic properties. A charge and a mass can be formally assigned to these entities, for the reasons that will be detailed in the talk and that originate from general relativity arguments. Can such newborn ‘pieces of matter’ be assimilated to real elementary particles? References [1] - Funaro D., Electromagnetism and the Structure of Matter, World Scientific, Singapore, 2008. [2] - Funaro D., From Photons to Atoms, the Electromagnetic Nature of Matter, arXiv:1206.3110