Thursday, April 26, 2012

Did you know? Lorentz VS Lorenz

This is embarrassing.... but I'm positive i'm not the only one who didn't know this, so let me share it:

Just a couple of days ago, I discovered that what I used to call "Lorentz" gauge condition

 \[\nabla_\mu A^\mu=0\]

is actually the "Lorenz" condition, named after Ludvig Lorenz and not after Hendrik Lorentz, who "only" gave his name to Lorentz transformations.


                               
                                              Hendrik Lorentz
Ludvig Lorenz

In my partial defense, I can advocate two motivations:

1) Even Google tries to cheat you:


2) One of the textbooks I used to study field theory [Ryder L. H. - Quantum Field Theory] made the same error!

If you are wondering about the Lorenz condition, check this out.

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