Abstract
Einstein's mass-energy equivalence law, argues de Broglie, by fixing the zero of the potential energy of a system,ipso facto selects a gauge in electromagnetism. We examine how this works in electrostatics and in magnetostatics and bring in, as a “trump card,” the familiar, but highly peculiar, system consisting of a toroidal magnet m and a current coil c, where none of the mutual energy W resides in the vacuum. We propose the principle of a crucial test for measuring the fractions of W residing in m and in c; if the latter is nonzero, the (fieldless) vector potential has physicality. Also, using induction for transferring energy from the magnet to a superconducting current, we prove that W is equipartitioned between m and c.
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Costa de Beauregard, O. Electromagnetic gauge as an integration condition: De Broglie's argument revisited and expanded. Found Phys 22, 1485–1494 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01883735
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01883735