Particle Physics Seminar: The search for topologically non-trivial EM fields

Abstract:

For many years, physicists assumed that Maxwell’s equations only have regular solutions, i.e. without knots or links. However, first found in 1989 by Rañada, there also seem to exist knotted and linked solutions to Maxwell's equations. In a more recent paper [1] , a method has been developed to find such knotted solutions, including the application of Special Conformal Transformations to regular solutions.

The following work attempts to replicate the success from that paper [1] using a method that transforms the EM fields and potentials themselves and not scalar fields, as well as to find additional solutions.

[1] C. Hoyos, N. Sircar and J. Sonnenschein, New knotted solutions of Maxwell’s equations , arXiv:1502.01382v2

Seminar Organizer: Prof. Nissan Itzhaki