E-dipole basics

Motivation
Concept questions
Exercises set 1
Waves etc
Plasma

Electric Dipoles

Figure: An example electric dipole from Wikipedia :)

1. Two charge system

2. (Usually) small distance
3. Far away: looks neutral! :O

Electric dipole math

1. Expressed usually with: p = qd

Why are dipoles important?

1. Many objects have dipoles inside them (e.g. dielectrics)

2. They have very interesting features; e.g. local and global
interactions can be used as a prelude to understanding
plasma physics

(Q. 0) Electric dipole from afar

Figure: Dipole

How does this look like at r >> d?

(Q. 0) Electric dipole from afar - answer

r >> d?
r1 = r + d/2
r2 = r d/2
Taylor expand:
2
1
= r12 (1 2 dr cos() + 3 dr 2 (2cos() + 1) + ...)
r2
1

1
r22

= r12 (1 + 2 dr cos() + 3 dr 2 (2cos() + 1) + ...)

We get:
E = k(r1 /|r1 |3 r2 /|r2 |3 ) =
k(1/|r1 |2 1/|r2 |2 )er + k(1/|r1 |3 + 1/|r2 |3 )d
4k rd3 cos()er + 2k r13 (1 + 6d 2 /r 2 )d
4k rd3 cos()er + 2k r13 d
What does this result tell us?
- a dipoles electric field seems to scale down as r13 , which means
that from afar an electric dipole looks approximately neutral

Bound charges

Quickly:
1. Bound charges are charges inside material (cant escape it) :O
2. Unbound (free) charges are charges that can move freely

Exercise 1

Potential V of a polarized object (lots of small dipoles p)? Put the

equation into a form that is physically meaningfu (Hint: for
example separate into a sum of surface charge density integral and
volume charge density integral)
Hint:
r
V (r) = k pe
r2

Exercise 1 answer

Express: p = PdV
We get:R
V =Rk P er /r 2 dV
= k R P (1/r )dV R
= k (1/r )P dA k (1/r )( P)dV
Express b = P n (surface bound charge density) and
b =
R P (volume Rbound charge density)
V = k b /r dA + k b /r dV

Exercise 2

Previous
H exercise; fromR polarized object we get to:
V = k b /r dA + k b /r dV
What does this tell us?

Exercise 2 - answer

H
R
V = k b /r dA + k b /r dV
Polarization seems to be dependent on both the surface and
volume of the object :O

What now?

1. Weve learned about bound charges and polarization in

material
2. How about practice?
3. We can calculate dipoles in materials! Yay :)

Exercise 3
Use:
H
D, D = 0 E + P, = b + f , D dA = Qfenclosed

Figure: Uniform line charge in a dielectric material

The cylinder is surrounded by a rubber band

a) What is a dielectric, and what is the difference between bound
charges causing polarization and free charges?
b) Solve D.

Exercise 3 - answer

a)
Bound charges are something inherent to the material. For
example, when we apply an electric field to a material, on a
molecular level some of the molecules may become aligned with
the eletric field, causing the material to become polarized and
enhance or de-enhance the outside electric field. These charges are
fixed inside the material.
Free charges Charges that can move around :)
Note: Credits to:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/89292/
how-is-bound-charge-and-free-charge-possible

Exercise 3 - answer

b)
D(2sL) = L
and we get:

es
D = 2s
Outside the cylinder: E = 0 D
This is kind of a boring result, but it demonstrates something very
important. We have no idea what the electric field looks like inside
the cylinder, but we can still solve its electric displacement! Yay

Plasma fun

Figure: Plasma setting

Plasma fun
Let us assume that we have plasma with the following assumptions:
1. Charge-neutrality
R
R
R
R
(Qtotal = dq+ + dq = eni dV ene dV 0)
2. A very large area of fluid
3. Very large temperatures (T =thermal energy >> all other
energy forms)
4. Thermal equilibrium ni n0 e ei /Ti 1 ei /Ti
where ni is the ion number density (+ charge), ne is the electron
number density ( charge), T is the temperature (k=1, so it is
also thermal energy), Ti is the ion species temperature and Te is
the electron temperature

Exercise 4

Figure: Plasma setting

Can we argue that the plasma system has some characteristic scale
length by means of perturbation theory and Poissons equation? If
so, how?

Plasma fun
Poissons equation:
2 =
We want to argue that small perturbations wont affect the system
on a global scale, so we look at how perturbing the system by
adding a charge changes the plasma setting:

Figure: Plasma after perturbation

Plasma fun

Using Poisson equation: 2 = , where we have thrown

away some constants
We have charge perturbation Q
Now perturbation obviously affects charge density
Which introduces a perturbed potential ;
Now what is ? We know that without perturbation = eni ene
After perturbation:
= external + e(ni ne )
= external 2e 2 n0 /T , where external = Q(r) is the
perturbation charge we just added and we used ni = n0 e ei /T

Plasma fun

And we apply the previous to Poisson:

(2 2e 2 n0 /T ) = external
(2 22 ) = external
(2

2
)
2D

= (r)

Which gives the following result in spherical coordinates (after

applying (r
) = 0):

2r
/

D
= C0 e
What does the describe? How do we interpret the results?

Plasma fun

= C0 e 2r /D
Answer:
The describes the potential introduced only by the
perturbation, so the charge added into the system.
It also says that the potential decays exponentially! So the
potential seems to only affects things in the radius of
approximately D

Plasma fun

Figure: Perturbations in plasma

For more information

physics.stackexchange.com
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/
Plasmahtml/node7.html
http:
//farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/plasma/plasma.html
Griffiths book