Physics Letters A 380 (2016) 27032705

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Physics Letters A
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A variational proof of Thomsons theorem

Miguel C.N. Fiolhais a,b,c, , Hanno Essn d , Tom M. Gouveia e
a
Department of Physics, City College of the City University of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031, USA
b
Department of Physics, New York City College of Technology, 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA
c
LIP, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal
d
Department of Mechanics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm SE-10044, Sweden
e
Cavendish Laboratory, 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Thomsons theorem of electrostatics, which states the electric charge on a set of conductors distributes
Received 23 February 2016 itself on the conductor surfaces to minimize the electrostatic energy, is reviewed in this letter. The proof
Accepted 9 June 2016 of Thomsons theorem, based on a variational principle, is derived for a set of normal charged conductors,
Available online 23 June 2016
with and without the presence of external electric elds produced by xed charge distributions. In this
Communicated by A.P. Fordy
novel approach, the variations are performed on both the charge densities and electric potentials, by
Keywords: means of a local Lagrange multiplier associated with Poissons equation, constraining the two variables.
Classical electromagnetism 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Electrostatics
Thomsons theorem

1. Introduction Thomsons theorem is presented for a set of normal charged con-

ductors, with and without an external electric eld from xed
Thomsons Theorem of electrostatics states that the electric sources, with emphasis on the global constraint due to charge
charge density on a set of conductors at static equilibrium is dis- conservation, and on the local constraint from Poissons equation,
tributed on the surface of the conductors so that the interior elec- which relates the electric potential and charge density.
tric eld is zero, and the surface electric eld is normal to the
surface. Such a conguration of charge distributions corresponds to 2. Variational proof of Thomsons theorem
the minimum value of the overall electric eld energy, and there-
fore, the electrostatic equilibrium. Despite the fact that W. Thom- In a system of N xed conductors, each with charge Q (n) , the
son (Lord Kelvin) never actually presented a formal mathematical total energy of the system corresponds to the integration of the
proof to his claim, several different proofs can be found in classic electric eld energy density over space. In the case of a static situ-
textbooks [16]. Recent derivations can also be found in the mod- ation, the electric eld can be written as E = , where is the
ern scientic literature by Bakhoum [7] in its differential form, and electric potential. As such, the total classical electric eld energy is
also by Kovetz [8] and Fiolhais et al. [9,10] using variational prin- 
1
ciples. U= E2 dV
Thomsons theorem is not only useful as an insightful teaching 8
  1 
tool, with applications in determining induced surface charge den- 1 (n)
= E2 dV out + E2 dV int , (1)
sities, in tracing and visualizing curvilinear squares eld maps, or 8 8
n
in developing novel computational methods like Monte Carlo en-
ergy minimization [1114]. However, there are a few peculiarities where int stands for the normal conductive regions, and out
that should be explored and discussed, such as, the correct appli- for the outer region. This total energy can be written in terms of
cation of local and global Lagrange multipliers for the constrains of the electric potential as,
the problem.   1 
1 (n)
In this letter, the interaction between conductors and xed U= ()2 dV out + ()2 dV int . (2)
charge distributions is studied in detail. A detailed derivation of 8 n
8

According to the vector calculus identity, () = ()2 +

* Corresponding author. 2 , the total electric eld energy can be once more rewritten
E-mail address: miguel.olhais@cern.ch (M.C.N. Fiolhais). as,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2016.06.039
0375-9601/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2704 M.C.N. Fiolhais et al. / Physics Letters A 380 (2016) 27032705


1
U= { () 2 } dV out The minimization conditions for the volume imply that,
8
 1  (n) = (n) 4 (n) 2 = 4 2 (n) , (10)
+ { () 2 } dV int . (3)
n
8 and that,

By making use of Gausss theorem at the conductors surface S, = 2 (n) . (11)

 
() dV = n dS (4) These equations together with Poissons equation, 4 = 2 ,
imply necessarily that 2 (n) = 0. This result by itself only implies
V S
that the volume charge density is equal to zero inside the conduc-
and taking the potential as zero at innity, the nal electric eld tive regions, but does not give any information about the charge
energy becomes, distribution at the surfaces. However, it should be stressed that the
 1 (n) 1
  Lagrange multiplier (n) is only dened inside the conductors vol-
(n)
U= dV int + dS (5) ume, and vanishes everywhere else outside these regions. As such,
n
2 2 (n) = 0 is zero at the surface of every electrical conductor, and
where the charge density relates to the electric eld through from the trivial solution of Laplaces equation, it has to be zero in-
Poissons equation, E = 4 , and S (n) corresponds to the surface side the conductors as well. As a result, the electric potential is
of the conductive regions. constant inside and at the surface of the conductors. The existence
Assuming each conductor contains a net charge Q (n) , spread of constant potential in the interior of the conductors, is equivalent
throughout the volume and the surface, the charge conservation to a zero charge density and to the absence of an electric eld in-
constraint can be implemented through the global Lagrange multi- side the electric conducting regions. In addition, since in this case
pliers (n) , the surface of each conductor corresponds to an equipotential sur-
face, the electric eld must be perpendicular to each surface. In
1  (n) 1

other words, the total electric energy on a set of xed conductors
U= dV int + dS (n) reaches its minimal value when the electric charge is distributed
n
2 2
    on the surface of the conductors, so that the interior electric eld
(n) (n) (n) (n) is zero and the surface electric eld is normal to the surface. The
+ Q dV int dS , (6)
expulsion of the external static electric elds from conductors can
be seen as the most favorable energetic conguration, i.e. the equi-
resulting in,
librium state of the system, with a total energy of,
1 
(n)


U= (n) dV int U= (n) Q S(n) , (12)
n
2
  n
1
+ (n) dS (n) + (n) Q (n) . (7) where (n) is the electric potential in the interior and surface of
2
each conductor. Note that, the total equilibrium electric eld en-
Since the charge densities and the electric potential are not inde- ergy is given by the previous equation (12) if and only if the
pendent variables, a new constrain needs to be added, i.e. Poissons potential is considered zero at innity. In other words, this re-
equation for both the volume and surface charges, sult is only valid in this particular gauge, as the symmetry was
1  
(n)
spontaneously broken in equation (1) upon the implementation of
U= (n) + (n) 4 + 2 dV int Gausss theorem.
2
n The theorem can also be trivially extended to the case of an
1  external electric eld caused by xed charge distributions. For ex-
+ (n) ample, if the set of conductors is in the presence of an uniform
n
2
 and constant external electric eld, the outer surface integral in


+ (n) 4 + n + dS (n) equation (4) would give rise to a constant contribution at inn-
 ity. In other words, in the presence of an external electric eld,
+ (n) Q (n) , (8) the Thomsons theorem of electrostatics is still valid, as the min-
n imum electric eld energy conguration corresponds to the eld
expulsion from the conductors.
where (n) (n) (x) and (n) (n) (x) are local Lagrange multi-
pliers. This functional can now be minimized using a variational 3. Summary
principle, where the functional derivative is equal to zero [15]. By
making variations on the electric potential and charge densities, The Thomsons theorem of electrostatics was derived in a
the minimal energy state is given by the EulerLagrange equa- purely variational framework. The proof was presented for a set
tions,1 of charged electrical conductors, with and without the presence of
1  
(n) external electric elds. Global and local Lagrange multipliers were
U = (n) + 4 (n) + + 2 (n) dV int dened for the charged conservation and Poissons equation con-
n
2
1
strains, respectively, allowing to perform variations on both the

charge densities and electric potential.
+ (n) + 4 (n)
n
2
  References
+ n + (n) (n) dS (n) = 0 . (9)
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1
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conditions and, therefore, can be ignored. Wesley, Reading, MA, 1963.
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