Scott Hughes Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Physics 8.

022 Spring 2005 Lecture 5: Fields and potentials around conductors The electrostatic uniqueness theorem

15 February 2005

5.1

Conductors

For much of the rest of this class, we will be concerned with processes that involve conductors: materials in which it is easy for charges to move around. We will discuss conductors in some depth when we discuss currents; for now, we will just summarize a few of their properties. Among the best conductors are metals silver, gold, copper, aluminum, etc. The atoms of these metals form a crystalline structure in which electrons can easily hop around from atom to atom. Although a chunk of metal is neutral overall, we can visualize it as being made of lots of positive charges that are nailed in place, paired up with lots of negative charges (electrons) that are free to move around. In isolation, the negative charges will sit close to the positive charges, so that the metal is not only neutral overall, but also largely neutral everywhere (no local excess of positive or negative charge). Under the inuence of some external eld, the electrons are free to move around. Some materials conduct OK, but are not as good as metals. For example, salty water has lots of charges that are free to move around under the inuence of an E eld. However, since these charges usually sodium and chlorine ions are far more massive than an electron, and they do not ow in a crystaline structure, salty water is not a very high quality conductor. Another example is graphite: the somewhat unusual bond structure of graphite makes it a fairly good conductor, but only in certain directions. At the opposite end of the spectrum are insulators: materials in which the electrons are bound quite tightly to the constituent molecules and hence have essentially no freedom to move. Insulators are typically made from organic materials such as rubber or plastic, or from crystals formed from strong covalently bounded molecules, such as quartz or glass. The eectiveness of a substance as a conductor is quantied by its resistivity, a number that expresses how well it resists the ow of current. We will revisit this quantity in about a week when we discuss currents in detail; for now, suce to say that small resisitivity means a good conductor. In SI units, resistivity is measured in Ohm-meters (usually written -m); in cgs units, resistivity turns out to be measured in seconds. Here are a few example values:

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Material Resistivity (-m) Resistivity (sec) Silver 1.6 108 1.8 1017 Copper 1.7 108 1.9 1017 8 Gold 2.4 10 2.6 1017 Iron 1.0 107 1.1 1016 Sea water 0.2 2.2 1010 11 Polyethylene 2.0 10 220 12 Glass 10 103 17 Fused quartz 7.5 10 8.3 108

As you can see, the resistivity of ordinary materials varies over an enormous range, reecting the very dierent electronic properties of materials around us.

5.2

Electric elds and conductors

For the rest of this lecture, we will assume that conductors are materials that have an innite supply of charges that are free to move around. (This of course just an idealization; but, it turns out to be an extremely good one. Real conductors in fact behave very similar to this limit.) From this, we can deduce a few important facts about conductors and electrostatic elds: There is no electric eld inside a conductor. Why? Suppose we bring a plus charge near a conductor. For a very short moment, there will be an electric eld inside the conductor. However, this eld will act on and move the electrons, which are free to move about. The electrons will move close to the plus charge, leaving net positive charge behind. The conductors charges will continue to move until the external E -eld is cancelled out at that point there is no longer an E -eld to move them, so they stay still.

+ + + +

Figure 1: Conductor near an external charge. The charges in the conductor very quickly rearrange themselves to cancel out the external eld. A more accurate statement of this rule is After a very short time, there is no electric eld inside a conductor. How short a time is it? Recall that in cgs units, 47

resistivity (which tells us how good/bad something conducts electricity) is measured in seconds. It turns out that the time it takes for the charges to rearrange themselves to cancel out the external E -eld is just about equal to this resistivity. For metals, this is a time that is something like 1016 1017 seconds. This is so short that we can hardly complain that the original statement isnt precise enough! The electric potential within a conductor is constant. Proof: the potential dierence between any two points a and b inside the conductor is
b

b a = = 0

E ds

since E = 0 inside the conductor. Hence, for any two points a and b inside the conductor, b = a . Net charge can only reside on the surface of a conductor. This is easily proved with Gausss law: make a little Gaussian surface that is totally contained inside the conductor. Since there is no E -eld inside the conductor, E dA is clearly zero for your surface. Since that is equal to the charge the surface contains, there can be no charge. We will discuss the charge on the conductors surface in a moment. Any external electric eld lines are perpendicular to the surface. Another way to put this is that there is no component of electric eld that is tangent to the surface. We prove this by contradiction: suppose that a component of the E -eld were tangent to the surface. If that were the case, then charges would ow along the surface. They would continue to ow until there was no longer any tangential component to the E -eld. Hence, this situation cannot exist: even if it exists momentarily, it will rapidly (within 1017 seconds or so) correct itself. The conductors surface is an equipotential. This follows from the fact that the E -eld is perpendicular to the surface. We do a line integral of E on the surface; the path is perpendicular to the eld; so the dierence in potential between any two points on the surface is zero. A few important corollaries follow from these rules. Corollary 1: Consider a conductor with a hollowed out region. If there is no charge in this hollow, then the potential there is constant. It follows that the electric eld inside the hollow is zero. We will prove this carefully shortly. For now, we can motivate this proof by noting that the surface of the conductor must be an equipotential. Since there is no charge anywhere on the inside, the interior potential must obey Laplaces equation, 2 = 0. Solutions to Laplaces equation can have no local maxima or minima. The only solution that has some proscribed constant value on an exterior boundary and has no local maxima or minima is one that is constant.

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= constant E=0
+ +

+ + + +

By putting things inside a conducting box, it is shielded from any external electric eld. Such an arrangement is known as a Faraday cage. Although it is beyond the scope of this course to prove this, Faraday cages work pretty well even when the external elds vary in time, as long as they dont vary too quickly. Corollary 2: suppose we put a charge q inside this hollow. There must be an induced layer of surface charge on the wall of the hollow; the total amount of induced charge in this layer is qind = q .

+q

Figure 2: Gaussian surface: dashed line enclosing hollow and induced negative charge. To prove this, use Gausss law. We draw a Gaussian surface that lies inside the conductor. The E -eld there is zero, so the total electric ux must be zero. This ux equals 4 times the total charge contained by the surface, which is q plus the induced charge: E dA = 0 qind = 4 (q + qind ) = q . 49

You should be able to prove with another well chosen Gaussian surface that the conductor has another layer of charge on its outer surface with total magnitude +q . Corollary 3: The induced charge density on any surface is given by |E |/4 , where E is the electric eld right next to the surface. This follows from the rule that whenever there is a surface charge layer, the electric eld changes with E = 4 . Since the eld inside the conductor is zero, E = |E |.

5.3

The uniqueness theorem

Suppose we know that some region contains a charge density (r). Suppose we also know the value of the electronstatic potential (r) value on the boundary of this region. The uniqueness theorem then guarantees that there is only one function (r) which describes the potential in that region. This means that no matter how we gure out s value guessing, computer aided numerical computation, demonic invocation the function we nd is guaranteed to be the one we want. We prove this theorem by assuming it is not true: we assume that two functions, 1 (r) and 2 (r), both satisfy Poissons equation: 2 1 (r) = 4(r) 2 2 (r) = 4(r) . Both of these functions must satisfy the boundary condition: we must have 1 (r) = 2 (r) = B (r) on the boundary of our region. By the principle of superposition, any combination of the potentials 1 (r) and 2 (r) must be a perfectly valid potential. (Its not the potential that describes our region, but it still is valid as far as the general laws of physics are concerned.) Lets look in particular at 3 (r) = 2 (r) 1 (r). First, what is the boundary condition for 3 ? Since 1 = 2 on the boundary, we must have 3 = 0 there. Next, apply the Laplacian to 3 : 2 3 = 2 ( 2 1 ) = 2 2 2 1 = 4 4 = 0 . The potential 3 thus satises Laplaces equation. This means that it can have no local maxima or minima inside its boundary. But, on the boundary, its value is zero! The only function which is zero on a boundary and has no local maxima or minima is one which is zero everywhere in the region: 3 (r) = 0. This means that 1 (r) = 2 (r) our initial assumption, that at least two potentials satised Poissons equation in the region with the given boundary condition, was wrong. Hence the solution for (r) is unique. Putting it concisely, we have proved the uniqueness theorem: An electrostatic potential (r) is completely determined within a region once its value is known on the regions boundary. This is good news: it gives us license to be lazy.

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5.4
5.4.1

Some conductor examples

A chunk of conductor with a hollowed out core has charge placed on it until its potential (relative to innity) is 0 . What is the potential inside the core?

=?

Surface potential0
Answer: the potential inside the core indeed, everywhere inside the conductors surface must be 0 . Why? (r) = 0 is a solution that satises the boundary condition, and it obviously satises Laplaces equation (since 0 is a constant). By the uniqueness theorem, thats all we need. 5.4.2 Example 2: Nested concentric spherical shells

A pair of thin, conducting, nested spherical shells with radii R2 and R1 carry charges Q2 and Q1 respectively. What is the potential of the inner sphere? What is the potential of the outer sphere? What is the potential at r = 0? (Set the zero of the potential at innity.)

R2 Q2 R1

Q1

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Lets do the potential of the outer sphere rst: it must be 1 = Q1 + Q 2 . R1

This should hopefully be almost obvious if not, apply Gausss law outside the outer sphere and note that it looks just like a point charge of Q1 + Q2 at the origin. To get the potential of the inner sphere, we use
R2

2 1 = =

Q2 dr R1 r 2 Q2 Q2 = R2 R1 Q2 Q1 + . = R2 R1

R1 R2

E ds

By the uniqueness theorem, the potential at r = 0 indeed, for any r R2 must be 2 . 5.4.3 . Suppose we hold a point charge Q a distance d above an innite, at plane conductor. The potential on the conductor is xed at zero1 . What is the potential everywhere above the conductor? Example 3: Point charge and at plane conductor

A priori, this looks nasty: the point charge induces minus charge on the conductor, which makes things really complicated. What do we do?

This is easily done by hooking it up to ground. Ground eectively means an innite supply of plus and minus charges. If we dene ground as our reference potential, = 0, then anything hooked up to it will also be at = 0.

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Uniqueness theorem to the rescue. It doesnt matter how we nd the potential, as long as we do so in a way that satises the boundary condition: the potential must be = 0 on the conductor, and the electric eld must be purely vertical in the conductors plane. A dierent conguration which produces the exact same potential above the plane is the following one:

Weve eliminated the plane entirely, and introduced a minus charge a distance d below the conductors surface. This ctitious charge is called an image charge. With this conguration, the plane right between the two charges (where the conductors surface is located) will be at = 0 (superposition: each point is equidistant from both charges, which are of opposite sign). Also the eld is purely vertical at that plane (horizontal components cancel by symmetry). The potential satises the boundary condition; it satises Laplaces equation; therefore, by the uniqueness theorem it is THE solution. The solution is of course complete nonsense in the region below the conductors surface. But we dont care! That region was not part of the study anyway.

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