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I'm studying vector calculus via Arfken & Weber's "Mathematical Methods for Physicists", and, in page 40, he is deriving the electromagnetic wave equation.

During the demonstration he states that we can fix $$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{A} + \frac{1}{c^2} \frac{\partial \phi}{\partial t} = 0$$ Where $\mathbf{A}$ is the vector magnetic potential, $\phi$ is the non-static electric potential, and $c$ is the speed of light. He states that "this option for fixing the divergence of the vector potential, named Lorenz Gauge, is to unlink the equations of both the potentials. It has no physical effect".

The last phrase is not clear to me. How does fixing the value of a vector field when studying electromagnetic equations will not have any implications, physically speaking?

As for my background, i've never been introduced formally to gauge theory. I know the basics of Group Theory and a little bit of representation theory, if that helps. (I've heard that classical electrodynamics has a $U(1)$ symmetry, does that have anything to do with this?)

Qmechanic
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embedded_dev
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1 Answers1

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I don't believe the assertion of lack of physical effect refers specifically to the Lorenz gauge; rather it refers to the freedom to fix a gauge in in the first place. Any condition that can be fulfilled by a gauge transformation $A_\mu \mapsto A_\mu + \partial_\mu\,\psi$ for some $C^2$ scalar field $\psi$ is fair game: we solve our boundary problem for the 4-potential $A$ and then the physically measurable field is $F=\mathrm{d} A$. This latter $F$ is independent of the gauge because it is invariant under the gauge transformation.

The assertion is simply a statement of gauge symmetry, and that the fixing of the gauge cannot affect the measurable field $F$,

Selene Routley
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