Magnetic Fields in Relativistic MHD

March 27, 2026·
Xinyu Li
Xinyu Li
· 1 min read
blog

In relativistic MHD, the magnetic field 4-vector $b_\mu$ and electric field $e_\mu$ in the fluid frame is defined through the 4-vector $u^{\mu}$ and EM 2-form $F_{\mu\nu}$.

$$\begin{aligned} b^\mu &=& u_{\nu}*F^{\mu\nu}\\ e^\mu &=& u_{\nu}F^{\mu\nu} \end{aligned}$$

where $*$ means the Hodge-dual of the 2-form. It is obvious that $u_{\mu}e^{\mu}=0$ and $u_{\mu}e^{\mu}=0$. MHD condition requires that $e^{\mu}=0=u_{\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$. Using the antisymmetric tensor, we have

$$\begin{equation} b^{\mu} = \frac{1}{2}\epsilon^{\mu\nu\kappa\lambda}u_{\nu}F_{\lambda\kappa}. \end{equation}$$

Contract with $\epsilon_{\mu\alpha\beta\gamma}$ on both sides, and using the equality from (3.50h) Misner, Thorn, Wheeler

$$\begin{equation} \delta^{\nu\kappa\lambda}_{\alpha\beta\gamma} = -\epsilon^{\mu\nu\kappa\lambda}\epsilon_{\mu\alpha\beta\gamma}. \end{equation}$$

$\delta^{\nu\kappa\lambda}_{\alpha\beta\gamma} $ takes the value $1$ if $\nu\kappa\lambda$ is an even permutation of ${\alpha\beta\gamma}$, and $-1$ for odd permutation, $0$ otherwise. Hence,

$$\begin{equation} \epsilon_{\mu\alpha\beta\gamma}b^{\mu} = -\frac{1}{2}\delta^{\nu\kappa\lambda}_{\alpha\beta\gamma}u_{\nu}F_{\lambda\kappa}. \end{equation}$$

Now contract both sides with $u^{\alpha}$, and using the fact that $u^{\mu}u_{\mu}=-1$,$u_{\nu}F^{\mu\nu}=0$, only nonzero term on the right hand side come from $\alpha=\nu$, therefore

$$\begin{equation} F_{\beta\gamma}=\epsilon_{\beta\gamma\alpha\mu}u^{\alpha}b^{\mu}. \end{equation}$$$$\begin{aligned} *F^{\mu\nu}&=&\frac{1}{2}\epsilon^{\beta\gamma\mu\nu}\epsilon_{\beta\gamma\alpha\rho}u^{\alpha}b^{\rho}\\ &=&-\delta^{\mu\nu}_{\alpha\rho}u^{\alpha}b^{\rho}\\ &=&-(\delta^{\mu}_{\alpha}\delta^{\nu}_{\rho}-\delta^{\nu}_{\alpha}\delta^{\mu}_{\rho})u^{\alpha}b^{\rho}\\ &=&b^{\mu}u^{\nu}-b^{\nu}u^{\mu} \end{aligned}$$

There might be a difference in sign in the last expression which does not matter. The Maxwell $*F^{\mu\nu}_{;\nu}=0$ is not affected by a minus sign on both sides. The fluid equation $T^{\mu\nu}_{;\nu}=0$.

$$\begin{equation} T^{\mu\nu}_{EM} = F^{\mu\alpha}F_{\nu\alpha}-\frac{1}{4}g^{\mu\nu}F_{\alpha\beta}F^{\alpha\beta} \end{equation}$$

is quadratic in $F^{\mu\nu}$.

Xinyu Li
Authors
Assistant Professor
Xinyu Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University. He is fond of discovering fundamental physical laws from the vast observation of various astrophysical objects. His research areas are high energy astrophysics, plasma astrophysics and cosmology. His research topics cover a broad range of physical scales: from the smallest fundamental particles like electrons and ultralight axions, to neutron stars, black holes and galaxies, and to the largest scale structure of the universe.