Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 36E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The electric-dipole approximation for radiation requires the source size to be much smaller than the radiation wavelength:The displayed fields also describe the radiation zone, so the observation point must satisfy and .
Write . The given vector potential and the time derivative of the electric dipole moment giveWhen taking the curl, differentiating produces a near-field term of order , while differentiating the retarded time produces the leading radiation term because . Hence
The assumed electric field and the transversality make the Poynting vectorOn a sphere of radius , the power through surface element is thereforeChoose the polar axis along and use the angular distribution of electric dipole radiation, for which . Since ,
For the charged particle in simple harmonic motion,ThusHere the angular frequency obeys , and the average uses . The dipole condition is
Allow the amplitude to vary slowly as radiation removes energy. The mechanical energy isso the radiation damping of a harmonically oscillating charge givesThis is exponential decay with rate . Its half-life isFinally, the largest particle speed is . Therefore the dipole condition itself implies , precisely the nonrelativistic limit required by the mechanical energy formula.
A charge undergoing simple harmonic motion of angular frequency and slowly varying amplitude radiates the averaged powerIts mechanical energy therefore has exponential decay rate and half-life