Gauss' Law

A static charge distribution produces a radial electric field E = A e b r r E\ =A\frac { { e }^{ -br } }{ r } where A A and b b are constants. What is the total charge Q Q ?

Hint: Use divergence of electric field, Dirac delta and the title.


The answer is 0.

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2 solutions

Spandan Senapati
Jul 1, 2018

The fact that E = A e b r / r E=Ae^{-br}/r makes the problem quite easy,as the field behaves like 1 / r 1/r in the limit r r tending to zero there isn't the case of a Dirac Function.So we simply use the Divergence theorem, V ( E ) d τ = S E d a \int _{V}(\nabla \cdot E)d\tau =\int _{S} E\cdot da and take the limit of radius tending to infinite to get the total charge. To state a better version of the same problem consider a filed where the potential varies as V ( r ) = A e b r r V(r)=A\frac {e^{-br}}{r} then E = d V d r = e b r ( 1 + b r ) r 2 E=-\frac {dV}{dr}=\frac {e^{-br}(1+br)}{r^2} ,clearly this behaves as a 1 / r 2 1/r^2 field in the limit of r r tending to zero.Hence we need the Dirac delta function.From Gauss law ρ = ϵ o . E \rho =\epsilon _{o}\nabla .E hence we get ρ r = A ϵ o ( 4 π δ 3 ( r ) b 2 e b r r ) \rho _{r}=A\epsilon _{o}(4\pi \delta ^3(r)-\frac {b^2e^{-br}}{r}) ,using the fact a l l s p a c e δ 3 ( r ) d τ = 1 \int _{all space}\delta ^3(r)d\tau =1 we get Q = ρ d τ = 0 Q=\int \rho d\tau =0

@Archit Boobna Basically it's noted Q i j = d 3 x ρ ( x ) ( 3 x i x j δ i j x 2 ) \mathbb {Q_{ij}}=\int d^3 x'\rho(x')(3x'_i x'_j -\delta_{ij}x^{'2}) .Gauss's law is just an application of E apriori, which is a complicated quantity. Yes, using the terms of Dirac-Delta function a l l s p a c e δ 3 ( r ) d τ = 1 \int_{allspace}\delta^3(r)d\tau=1 ρ d τ = 0 \int\rho d\tau=0 .

Pawan Goyal - 2 years, 1 month ago

I don't know but Dirac delta but simple gauss law and some integration does the job.

Ya although a simple physical interpretation exists on could anyway guess it.....The constants being independent your answer must be zero anyway... This isn't quite the formal approach but just a way to make correct guesses.

Spandan Senapati - 4 years ago

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Ya... But I must say that the mathematics involved in electromagnetism is beautiful.

Hey, I also used that logic only. Do you have a solution of this question?

Md Zuhair - 3 years, 2 months ago

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Dirac delta function. Read Griffith's,this was a question of Physics OCSC 2016. Also you'll find the problem in most standard electrodynamics texts.

Spandan Senapati - 3 years, 2 months ago

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@Spandan Senapati Actually, I tried integrating, But the result came was a constant containing A and b. So i thought that 0 should be the answer.

Let me read it. And bhaiya, can you please accept my req. in the gmail hangouts!

Md Zuhair - 3 years, 2 months ago

Doesn't need Dirac function though,using divergence theorem S E d a = V E d τ \int _{S}E\cdot da=\int _{V}\nabla \cdot Ed\tau ,now just take the limit for R R tending to be infinite.

Spandan Senapati - 2 years, 11 months ago

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@Spandan Senapati Now i know. When i commented i didnt knew

Md Zuhair - 2 years, 11 months ago

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