THE SOLUTION OF MAXWELL'S EQUATIONS IN TERMS OF A SPINOR NOTATION PART I. THE INITIAL VALUE PROBLEM IN TERMS OF FIELD STRENGTHS AND THE INVERSE PROBLEM

摘要

Maxwell's equations for fields with sources in media in which the dielectric constant and permeability are unity are written in terms of a spinor notation which resembles the one used for Dirac's equation for the electron. One can intro¬duce Green's functions and expansions in terms of complete sets of orthogonal functions, which are analogous to those used in the quantum theory of the electron, to solve Maxwell's equations in more compact form than in terms of the conventional vector notation. It is possible to express both real and complex vector potentials simply in terms of the field strengths by means of this notation. Some examples will be given.