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HAL Id: hal-01275891 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01275891 Submitted on 18 Feb 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- entific research documents, whether they are pub- lished or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike| 4.0 International License Modelling the magnetic dipole Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava To cite this version: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava. Modelling the magnetic dipole. European Journal of Physics, European Physical Society, 2016, 37 (2), pp.025203 (1-14). 10.1088/0143-0807/37/2/025203. hal-01275891
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Page 1: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

HAL Id: hal-01275891https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01275891

Submitted on 18 Feb 2016

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open accessarchive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-entific research documents, whether they are pub-lished or not. The documents may come fromteaching and research institutions in France orabroad, or from public or private research centers.

L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, estdestinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documentsscientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,émanant des établissements d’enseignement et derecherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoirespublics ou privés.

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike| 4.0 InternationalLicense

Modelling the magnetic dipoleKira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

To cite this version:Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava. Modelling the magnetic dipole. European Journal ofPhysics, European Physical Society, 2016, 37 (2), pp.025203 (1-14). �10.1088/0143-0807/37/2/025203�.�hal-01275891�

Page 2: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

Modelling the magnetic dipole

Kira Seleznyova1,2, Mark Strugatsky2 and Janis Kliava1

1 LOMA, UMR 5798 Université de Bordeaux CNRS, F 33405 Talence cedex, France2 Physics and Technology Institute, Crimean Federal V.I. Vernadsky University,Simferopol, Republic of Crimea

E mail: janis.kliava@u bordeaux.fr

AbstractThree different models of a magnetic dipole, viz., a uniformly magnetisedsphere, a circular current loop and a pair of fictitious magnetic charges, havebeen systematically analysed within the formalism based on the vectorpotential of the magnetic field. The expressions of the potentials and magneticfields produced by each dipole model have been obtained. A computer codehas been put forward in order to visualise magnetic field lines for differentdipole models. It has been shown that the magnetic field outside the uniformlymagnetised sphere coincides with that of a point dipole. The other two modelsgive considerably different results at distances small or intermediate in com-parison with the dipole size.

Keywords: magnetic dipole, uniformly magnetised sphere, circular currentloop, pair of magnetic monopoles, magnetic field lines

1. Introduction

In electrostatics, the primary source of the electric field is an electric charge. In contrast, inmagnetostatics, insofar as ‘magnetic charges’ magnetic monopoles have not been found innature, the same fundamental role of primary source of the magnetic field is played by themagnetic dipole. Therefore, adequate modelling of the magnetic dipole is of paramountimportance, both in teaching and scientific research.

As far as a point dipole is only an abstract idea, in teaching magnetostatics as well as inresearch in the field of magnetism, it is useful to consider dipole models more realisticphysical systems yielding the same magnetic field as the point dipole, at least, at distancesmuch larger than their own size. Most often, as such a model in magnetostatics one considersa circular current loop or, by analogy with electrostatics, a pair of fictitious magnetic charges

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Page 3: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

of opposite sign. Meanwhile, there is the third possibility, that to model the magnetic dipoleas a uniformly magnetised three-dimensional body of a simple, e.g., spherical shape. Usually,the uniformly magnetised sphere is considered in a different context, viz., as an illustration ofa boundary-value problem in magnetostatics [1, p 198 ff], or an example of application of thevector potential [2, p 236], thus overlooking the opportunity of using it as one more model ofthe magnetic dipole. Below we shall compare in detail all three dipole models.

Of course, the magnetic field produced by a dipole model at intermediate and shorterdistances will differ from that of the point dipole; moreover, the predictions of differentmodels can be quite different. This issue is of importance, e.g., in studying magnetic dipoledipole interactions between paramagnetic ions in solid state, in which case a comparison withexperimental observations allows choosing the most adequate description of a given magneticsource.

In teaching electromagnetism, the analogy between electrostatics and magnetostaticssuggests that the electric and the magnetic dipole should be introduced in an analogousmanner. This can be implemented in two different ways: (i) by calculating the electric andmagnetic dipole fields through the Coulomb and Biot Savart laws, respectively and (ii) byderiving them from scalar and vector potentials, respectively. The first way has been exploredin detail by Bezerra et al [3]. We have chosen the second way, more sophisticated from theconceptual viewpoint but allowing to considerably simplify certain computations.

In one form or another, the models considered below have been described in a number oftextbooks and/or research papers. Meanwhile, we have tried to present them systematicallywithin the same formalism and comparing exact analytical expressions with Taylor expan-sions to higher-than-first order, providing simple expressions of potentials and fields valid notonly at large but also at intermediate distances. A computer code has been put forward,allowing to visualise magnetic field lines computed using both exact expressions and Taylorexpansions.

We believe that this paper will be interesting and useful to people involved in teachingboth undergraduate and graduate courses as well as in research work in the field ofelectromagnetism.

2. Point dipole: an overview

According to the Biot Savart law of magnetostatics, the magnetic field B(r) produced in apoint of space r x y z, ,( )= by an arbitrary distribution of steady currents in a volume V′ is(e.g., see [1, p 175 ff], [2, p 215 ff]):

B rj r r r

r rV

4d . 1

V

03

( ) ( ) ( )| |

( )òmp

=¢ - ¢

- ¢¢

¢

The same expression is obtained with the help of the relation B r A r ,( ) ( )= A r( )being the corresponding vector potential:

A rj r

r rV

4d . 2

V

0( ) ( )| |

( )òmp

- ¢¢

¢

In equations (1) and (2) 0m is the permeability of vacuum, j r( )¢ is the current density in apoint r x y z, ,( )¢ = ¢ ¢ ¢ of the magnetic source, and the integration is performed over the wholedistribution of currents. The corresponding analysis, outlined below, can be found, e.g., inJacksons’ and Landau and Lifshitz’s textbooks ([1, p 184 ff], [4, p 103 ff]).

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Page 4: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

Equation (2) can be expanded in powers of r 1- (the multipole expansion):

A r j rr

r P V4

1cos d , 3

nn V

nn

01

0

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )òåmp

a= ¢ ¢ ¢+

=

¥

¢

where Pn are the Legendre polynomials and a is the angle between r and r .¢ The first term ofthis development (n 0= )

A j rr

V4

d , 4V

m0 ( ) ( )ò

mp

= ¢ ¢¢

is the vector potential of the magnetic monopole, Am, and it is shown to vanish. The secondterm in equation (3), n 1,= the magnetic dipole term

A r r j rr

V4

d , 5V

d0

3( ) ( ) ( )ò

mp

= ⋅ ¢ ¢ ¢¢

can be put in the following form:

A mr4

1, 6d

0 ( )mp

= -

where m is the magnetic dipole moment:

m r j r V1

2d . 7

V( ) ( )ò= ¢ ¢ ¢

¢

Taking the curl of Ad, applying the product rule and keeping in mind that m is a fixedvector, for the magnetic field produced by a point dipole one gets:

Bm r r mr

r4

3. 8d

02

5

( ) ( )mp

=⋅ -

According to the Curie symmetry principle [5], the effects generated by a cause can haveonly higher and not lower symmetry than the cause itself. We put the dipole at the origin O(in subsequent sections, O will be chosen in the centre of the dipole model). As far as thedipole field is invariant with respect to rotation about its axis denoted as Oz, the use ofcylindrical coordinates z, ,r j and the corresponding unit vectors e e e, , zr j is the mostappropriate, and all calculations can be restricted to a plane containing Oz. The position of apoint in this plane can be defined either by the radius r and the polar angle J or by thedistance r sinr J= and the height z r cos ;J= below we are thoroughly using the formerdefinition. Thus, equations (6) and (8) become:

A em

r4sin 9d

02

( )mp

J= j

and

B e em

r4

3

2sin 2 3 cos 1 . 10zd

03

2( ) ( )⎡⎣⎢

⎤⎦⎥

mp

J J= + -r

3. Uniformly magnetised sphere

The magnetic field produced by a uniformly magnetised sphere, see figure 1, has beenaddressed, e.g., in [1, p 198 ff]. A related model, that of a spinning spherical shell carrying auniform surface charge, has been treated in the Griffith’s textbook [2, p 236 ff].

We consider the magnetised sphere of radius R and magnetic dipole momentm MR4

33p= where M is the magnetisation vector supposed to be uniform, as an assembly of

3

Page 5: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

elementary dipoles. Taking into account equation (6), the vector potential produced by such asphere in a point of radius vector r can be calculated as a sum of contributions of all volumeelements dV ¢ of radius vector r′ and dipole moment dm = MdV′:

A Mr r

V4

1d . 11

V

0

| |( )ò

mp

= - ¢- ¢

¢¢

For a uniform M, the latter expression can be rewritten as

AM

r rV

4d . 12

V

0

| |( )ò

mp

= - ¢ - ¢

¢¢

In accordance with a well-known theorem of vector analysis, the volume integral in thisexpression can be transformed to an integral over the surface S¢ of the sphere:

rM nr r

SA4

d , 13S

0 ∮( )| |

( )mp

=- ¢

¢¢

where n r r= ¢ ¢ is the unit vector normal to S¢ and S Rd sin d d .2 J J j¢ = ¢ ¢ ¢ A comparisonbetween equations (2) and (13) shows that the latter describes the vector potential of a surfacecurrent of density j r M nS ( )¢ = .

We choose the space origin in the centre of the sphere and the z axis parallel to r, r er z=(such a choice allows simplifying the calculation, see [2, p 236 ff]). One can see from figure 1that r R sin cos , sin sin , cos( )J j J j J¢ = ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ and r r r R rR2 cos .2 2 1 2| ( )J- ¢ = + - ¢Because of the rotational symmetry about M, without loss of generality M can be confined inthe xz plane, forming an angle J with r, M M sin , 0, cos ,( )J J= so that

M n M sin sin cos , sin cos coscos sin , sin sin sin . 14(

) ( )J j J J j J

J J J j J = - ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

- ¢ ¢ ¢

Making these substitutions in equation (13), we remark that integrating over the range0 2 j p¢ < will eliminate contributions of all dependentj¢- terms in equation (14). Theremaining integral over J¢ yields:

Figure 1. Magnetic dipole modelled by a uniformly magnetised sphere.

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Page 6: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

Ae

e

mr

Rr R

m

rr R

4sin , ,

4sin , .

15

03

02

( )

⎧⎨⎪

⎩⎪

mp

J

mp

J=

j

j

Taking the curl of A inside and outside the sphere, we get the corresponding magneticfields Bint and Bext in cylindrical coordinates:

B e

B e e

m

Rm

r

24

,

4

3

2sin 2 3 cos 1 . 16

z

z

int 03

ext 03

2( ) ( )⎡⎣⎢

⎤⎦⎥

mp

mp

J J

=

= + -r

One can see that inside the uniformly magnetised sphere the magnetic field is uniform, asknown from magnetostatics. Most interestingly, outside this sphere the magnetic field at anydistance coincides with that of the point dipole, see equations (16) and (10).

4. Circular current loop

Most often, in magnetostatics one takes a circular loop of electric current (Ampérian current)as a basic model of the magnetic dipole. Let us consider a loop of radius R and area S R ,2p=placed in the xy plane and centred at the origin, see figure 2. The loop is carrying a current Isupposed to flow in counterclockwise direction as seen from above the xy plane; so, bydefinition, its magnetic moment is m R I.2p= An element of current Idl, where dl is anelementary vector tangent to the loop in a point M, produces an elementary vector potential inan arbitrary point in space P:

Alm

R MPd

4

d. 170

2 | |( )=

mp p

Because of rotational symmetry about the z axis, without loss of generality P can bepositioned in the yz plane. In polar coordinates we get dl = Rdj′ej′. From figure 2 one cansee that MP MO OP= +

and MP r R Rr2 sin sin2 2| | J j= + - ¢ .

In performing the integration of dA over the current loop, dl should be converted toCartesian coordinates by substituting e e esin cos .x yj j= - ¢ + ¢j¢ Thus

Ae em

R r R Rr4

sin cos

2 sin sind . 18

x y0

0

2

2 2( )ò=

mp p

j j

J jj

- ¢ + ¢

+ - ¢¢

p

It turns out that A 0.y = Identifying Ax as A ,- j and denoting r r R2 2 2= +

Rr2 sin J and k Rr r2 sin ,J= + we get:

A em

Rk rk K k E k

4

81

1

2190

22 ( ) ( ) ( )⎜ ⎟

⎡⎣⎢

⎛⎝

⎞⎠

⎤⎦⎥

mp p

= - - j+

where K(k) and E(k) are, respectively, complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kind.From this equation we derive the cylindrical components of the magnetic field vector:

Bm

R r rr R E k r K k

Bm

R r rR r E k r K k

4

2cot ,

4

2. 20z

02 2

2 2 2

02 2

2 2 2

[( ) ( ) ( )]

[( ) ( ) ( )] ( )

mp p

J

mp p

= + -

= - -

r+ -

-

+ -+

5

Page 7: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

As one can see, in the model of a current loop, the vector potential and the magnetic fieldcan be analytically expressed only through the elliptical integrals. In order to obtain simplerexpressions valid at intermediate distances, we have applied expansions in Taylor series to thesixth order in the small parameter R r.e = Expanding equation (19) we get:

A em

rP P P P

4

1

4

1

8

5

64. 210

2 11

31 2

51 4

71 6 ( )⎜ ⎟⎛

⎝⎞⎠

mp

e e e= - + - + j

The same development applied to equation (20) yields approximate expressions for themagnetic field:

Bm

rP P P P

Bm

rP P P P

4

3

4

5

8

35

64,

42 3

15

4

35

8. 22z

03 2

141 2

61 4

81 6

03 2 4

26

48

6 ( )

⎜ ⎟

⎜ ⎟

⎛⎝

⎞⎠

⎛⎝

⎞⎠

mp

e e e

mp

e e e

= - + - +

= - + -

r

Here for brevity we are using the Legendre polynomials P cosn ( )J and associatedLegendre polynomials P cosn

m ( )J shortened to Pn and P ,nm respectively (see [6, p 716 ff and

741 ff]).

5. Pair of fictitious magnetic charges

The third model represents the magnetic dipole as an assembly of two fictitious magneticmonopoles, or ‘magnetic charges’ q a distance d apart, see figure 3. By analogy withelectrostatics, the magnetic dipole moment is defined as m qd,= so that in order to calculatethe magnetic field produced by such a model, one is tempted to introduce a scalar magneticpotential, see [1, p 196 ff]. However, for the sake of consistency, we prefer using here a vectorpotential, and, in accordance with the superposition principle, it can be taken as a sum of thevector potentials of two magnetic monopoles of opposite signs.

The vector potential of a magnetic monopole introduced by Dirac [7]

A em

d r4

1 cos

sin, 230 ( )

mp

JJ

=-

j

yields a correct expression of the magnetic field expected to be produced by a magneticmonopole. However, it is not quite satisfactory from both mathematical and physical

Figure 2. Magnetic dipole modelled by an Ampérian current.

6

Page 8: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

standpoints, as far as it exhibits a singularity along the half-line J p= (the so-called Diracstring); while for a magnetic monopole the direction of this half-line is completely arbitrary.Meanwhile, it can be readily shown that the vector potential of a pair of magnetic monopolesof opposite signs,

A em

d r r4

1 cos

sin

1 cos

sin, 240 p

p p

m

m m( )

⎛⎝⎜

⎞⎠⎟

mp

JJ

JJ

=-

--

j

has no more such singularities. The latter equation can be rewritten as:

A er

m

d

r d

r

r d

r4 sin

cos1

2cos

1

2 , 250

m p( )

⎜⎜⎜

⎟⎟⎟mp J

J J=

+-

-j

where the connotation of different symbols is shown in figure 3. Obviously, the following

relations hold: r r r dd cos ,p,m2 1

22J= + cos

r d

rp,mcos 1

2

p,mJ =

J(the upper and lower

signs corresponding to the first and second subscripts, respectively) and r rsin sinp,m p,mJ J= .For the magnetic field components we get:

Bm

dr

r r

Bm

d

r d

r

r d

r

4sin

1 1,

4

cos1

2cos

1

2 . 26z

0

p3

m3

0

p3

m3

( )

⎛⎝⎜

⎞⎠⎟

⎜⎜⎜

⎟⎟⎟

mp

J

mp

J J

= -

=-

-+

r

Note that the latter equations can be immediately obtained from the correspondingexpressions for the electric dipole by substituting the electric dipole moment and thepermittivity of vacuum 0e by the magnetic dipole moment and ,0

1m - respectively. Theseexpressions are simpler in comparison with those obtained for the model of a current loop.Yet, we still provide the corresponding expansions in the Taylor series, useful for a directcomparison between these two models. In the same approximation as in the previous section,redefining the small parameter as d r,e = equations (25) and (26) become, respectively:

Figure 3. Magnetic dipole modelled by an assembly of two ‘magnetic charges’.

7

Page 9: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

A em

rP P P P

4

1

12

1

80

1

448270

2 11

31 2

51 4

71 6 ( )⎜ ⎟⎛

⎝⎞⎠

mp

e e e= - + + + j

and

Bm

rP P P P

Bm

rP P P P

4

1

4

1

16

1

64,

42

3

8

1

8. 28z

03 2

141 2

61 4

81 6

03 2 4

26

48

6 ( )

⎜ ⎟

⎜ ⎟

⎛⎝

⎞⎠

⎛⎝

⎞⎠

mp

e e e

mp

e e e

=- + + +

= + + +

r

6. Comparison between the dipole models

Figure 4 compares radial dependences of Bz in the equatorial plane 2J p= for differentdipole models. The calculations have been made using the exact expressions for B .z Themodel sizes and the distances are scaled in relative distance units (rdu). As one can see, for theuniformly magnetised sphere of radius R, Bz remains uniform at R,r < has a discontinuity at

Rr = and follows the corresponding dependence for the point dipole at R.r > The ana-logous dependence for the current loop of radius R has a singularity at R,r = and for the pairof magnetic charges Bz has a minimum at 0.r = Thus, at small and intermediate distances incomparison with the model size, the behaviour of all three models is very different. At largedistances, see inset in figure 4, the magnetic fields produced by different magnetic dipolemodels match that of the point dipole, as expected.

A still better insight in the behaviour of different models at small and intermediatedistances can be achieved by visualising magnetic field lines. By definition, the elementaryvector of the tangent to the field line, dL, in each point of this line is parallel to the fieldvector. The vector product for parallel vectors vanishes, so, for the magnetic field lines we getL B 0d . = In cylindrical coordinates this reduces to z B Bd d ,zr = r and we get the fol-lowing equation for the magnetic field lines:

zB y z

B y zy

,

,d , 29

y

z

inf

sup( ) ( )

( )( )

òr =

r

r r

r=

where ρinf and ρsup are, respectively, the smallest and the largest value of r for a given fieldline, and z ,inf sup[ ]r rÎ is a dummy variable.

We have put forward a FORTRAN 77 computer code for calculating the magnetic fieldlines for different dipole models according to both the exact expressions and their Taylorexpansions, see the appendix. Visualisation of the field lines calculated using the Taylorexpansions allows to estimate contributions of various expansion terms and the generalconvergence of the Taylor series for different models.

In the current loop model the exact expressions of the magnetic field components,equation (20), are very complicated, so, we have chosen to compute them by numericalintegration over the angle j¢ of the elementary field components expressed through theBiot Savart law, see equation (1) and figure 2:

Bm

R

z

R R z

Bm

R

R

R R z

4

sin

2 sind ,

4

sin

2 sind . 30z

0

0

2

2 2 2 3 2

0

0

2

2 2 2 3 2

( )

( )( )

ò

ò

mp p

jr r j

j

mp p

r jr r j

j

+ - ¢ +¢

=- ¢

+ - ¢ +¢

rp

p

8

Page 10: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

The corresponding exact expressions for the model of a pair of magnetic charges havebeen given in the previous section, see equation (26).

The Taylor expansions of the field line equation in the computer code have been obtainedby expanding in the Taylor series the ratio Bz over B .r For the model of a current loop thisresults in

B

B

2

3

1

sin 2

3 cos 11

45 cos 3

5

327 cos 6 cos 1

5

512203 cos 273 cos 65 cos 5

,

31

z

2 2 2 4 2 4

6 4 2 6

( ) ( )

( )

( )

⎢⎢⎢⎢

⎥⎥⎥⎥J

J J e J J e

J J J e=

- + + - - -

+ - + +r

and for that of a pair of magnetic charges we get:

B

B

2

3

1

sin 2

3 cos 11

125 cos 3

1

1447 cos 15 cos

1

172826 cos 63 cos 45 cos

.

32

z

2 2 2 4 2 4

6 4 2 6

( ) ( )

( )

( )

⎢⎢⎢⎢

⎥⎥⎥⎥J

J J e J J e

J J J e=

- - + - -

- - +r

We remind the reader that in equations (31) and (32) e has different meaning. In all cases,the numerical integration over r in equation (29) has been performed using the Runge Kuttamethod [8].

Figure 4. B , 2z ( )r J p= dependences for a uniformly magnetised sphere of radiusR 0.3= rdu (circles, grey online), a circular current loop of radius R 0.3= rdu,(diamonds, blue online) and a pair of fictitious magnetic charges, d 0.3= rdu apart,(dashed, red online) compared do that of the point dipole (continuous, green online).The inset: shows a zoom in the behaviour of Bz at larger distances.

9

Page 11: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

With the aid of this programme we have visualised the field lines for all models, seefigure 5. The calculations have been made using the exact expressions, vide supra, and themodelling parameters have been chosen in such a way that all the field lines ostensibly mergeat the maximal distance rmax from the source. As one can see, at distances comparable with themodel size, the appearance of the field lines predicted by each model is totally different. Thelines produced by a uniformly magnetised sphere are parallel to the dipole axis inside thesphere and coincide with those of the point dipole outside the sphere. The lines due to acurrent loop close on themselves inside the loop while those of a pair of magnetic chargesdiverge from the positive charge and converge towards the negative one. In all cases, at smalldistances the behaviour of the field lines has nothing in common with that expected for thepoint dipole, in which case the field lines close on themselves in the space origin.

In certain applications, e.g. in calculating the interaction energy between magneticmoments embedded in a condensed matrix, one needs a good approximation for the magneticfield produced at intermediate distances from the magnetic source. Obviously, in such cases inthe multipole expansion, see equation (3), higher-order terms (quadrupole etc) should bemaintained. Figure 6 compares the magnetic field lines calculated using the exact expressions

Figure 5. Magnetic field lines for different dipole models scaled in rdu. The externalline (red online) corresponds to a pair of magnetic charges d 0.75= apart. Theintermediate dashed (green online) and continuous (grey online) lines refer to a pointdipole and uniformly magnetised sphere of radius R 0.20,= respectively. The internalline (blue online) is due to a current loop of radius R 0.40.= All the lines merge at themaximal distance r 2.0max = .

Figure 6. Magnetic field lines in the models of a current loop (a) and of a pair ofmagnetic charges (b) calculated using the exact expressions of the magnetic fields(continuous lines) and the Taylor expansions to the 0th, 2nd, 4th and 6th order in thecorresponding small parameters. All the lines merge at the maximal distance r 2.0max =rdu. With increasing the expansion order, in (a) each subsequent field line remainsconfined inside the previous one, while in (b) it passes alternately from inside to outsideof the exact field line profile.

10

Page 12: Kira Seleznyova, Mark Strugatsky, Janis Kliava

and Taylor expansions to different orders in the corresponding small parameter for the modelsof a circular current loop and a pair of fictitious magnetic charges. One can see that in themodel of a current loop the expansion up to the 6th order in R re = provides a goodapproximation for R r 3 4,max and in the model of a pair of magnetic charges the sameexpansion in d re = already for d r 3 4max = yields a result practically indistinguishablefrom that of the exact calculation.

7. Conclusions

In this work we have presented a consistent approach, based on the vector potential form-alism, to the calculation of the magnetic field produced by different models of the magneticdipole. Of course, exactly the same results could be obtained with the scalar magneticpotential. However, using the vector potential for calculating the magnetic field is moreacceptable from the methodological and educational points of view. Indeed, in teachingelectrostatics and magnetostatics, it is preferable to respect a certain ‘symmetry’, viz., topreserve ‘parenting relationships’ from the scalar potential to the electric field and from thevector potential to the magnetic field.

We have seen that all three models of the magnetic dipole considered in this study yieldidentical results at large distances. Indeed, the first terms of Taylor expansions of themagnetic field for both the models of a current loop and of a pair of magnetic chargescoincide with the exact expression of the magnetic field outside the uniformly magnetisedsphere. Therefore, such a sphere represents not only a perfect but also a quite physicallyrealistic model of the point dipole.

However, starting from the second term in the Taylor series, the magnetic field in themodels of a current loop and of a pair of magnetic charges totally diverge. Interestingly,for these models this divergence goes in opposite directions, so that the characteristicsof the magnetic dipole models at small and intermediate distances become quite sensibleto the choice of the dipole model. Our computer code allows visualising thesediscrepancies; besides, it gives the possibility of comparing the aspect of the magneticfield lines calculated using the exact expressions of the magnetic field and thecorresponding approximate expressions obtained by expanding in Taylor series of differentorder.

Appendix. Computer code for visualising field lines produced by differentmagnetic dipole models

C Calculates magnetic field lines for the current loop and pair of charges modelsC with both exact expressions and Taylor expansions up to 6th orderC*******************************************************************

IMPLICIT DOUBLE PRECISION (a h,p z)DIMENSION zp( 10001: 10001), zn( 10001: 10001)COMMON/Parametres/me, N, y ( 10001: 10001), Pi, d,nea, nTCOMMON /Angulaire/Sphi(1000), pas ang, NaPi = dacos( 1d0)

C*******************************************************************

C me = 1: Current loop; me = 2: Pair of chargesC nea = 1: Exact calculation;nea = 2: Taylor expansionC nT = 0, 2, 4, 6: order of Taylor expansionC*******************************************************************

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(Continued.)

me = 1nea = 1nT = 2

C d = loop radius for me = 1 and d = charge separation for me= 2.d = 1.5d0

C y sup: maximal distance between the dipole and the observation point.y inf = 0.d0y sup = 2.0d0

C Na: number of angles used in integrating the magnetic field over the loopNa = 90pas ang = 0.5d0*Pi/dble(Na)

C*******************************************************************

C Preparing the integrationDO i = 1, Naphi = 36d1/dble(Na)*dble(i)Sphi(i) = dsind(phi)ENDDO

C*******************************************************************

C Discretising yN = 1000dN = dble(N)pas y = (y sup y inf)/dNDO j = N, Ny (j) = dble(j)*pas yENDDO

C*******************************************************************

C Calculating the field line with Runge Kutta methodj = N

C Choosing an initial value of z (z > 0d0) to get a smooth aspect of the field linez = 0.01d0

1 zp(j) = zzn(j) = zzp( j) = zzn( j) = zy1 = y (j)z1 = zCALL Ratio(y1, z1, a)z2 = z1 0.5d0*pas y*ay2 = y1 0.5d0*pas yCALL Ratio(y2, z2, b)z3 = z1 0.5d0*pas y*bCALL Ratio(y2, z3, c)z4 = z1 pas y*cy3 = y1 pas yCALL Ratio(y3, z4, dd)z = z pas y*(a + 2d0*b + 2d0*c + dd)/6d0

C Continue calculating2 IF (j. gt. 0. and. z. gt. 0d0) THEN

j = j 1GOTO 1ENDIF

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(Continued.)

C*******************************************************************

C Creating output file. zp and zn are the upper and lower parts of the field line.C Give an appropriate file name!

OPEN(2,file = 'Cur loop d = 1.5 exact.txt')DO j = N, NWRITE (2, 3) y (j), zp(j), zn(j)ENDDO

3 FORMAT (3E24.6)CLOSE(2)

99 ENDC*******************************************************************

SUBROUTINE Ratio (y, z, rat)C Implements the Runge Kutta procedureC*******************************************************************

IMPLICIT DOUBLE PRECISION (a h, p z)DIMENSION rT(0: 6)COMMON/Parametres/me, N, y ( 10001: 10001), Pi, d, nea, nTCOMMON/Angulaire/Sphi(1000), pas ang, Na

C*******************************************************************

IF (nea. eq. (1)) THENC Exact calculation

IF (me. eq. (1)) THENC Current loop: integrating the magnetic field over the loop

By = 0d0Bz = 0d0DO i = 1, Narpm = (y**2 + z**2 2d0*d*y*Sphi(i) + d**2)**1.5dBy = 1d0/Pi/d*z*Sphi(i)/rpmdBz = 1d0/Pi/d*(d y*Sphi(i))/rpmBy = (By + dBy*pas ang)Bz = (Bz + dBz*pas ang)ENDDO

C*******************************************************************

ELSEIF (me. eq. (2)) THENC Pair of charges

rm = ((z 0.5d0*d)**2 + y**2)**1.5rp = ((z + 0.5d0*d)**2 + y**2)**1.5Bz = (z 0.5d0*d)/rm (z + 0.5d0*d)/rpBy = y*(1d0/rm 1d0/rp)

C*******************************************************************

ENDIFrat = Bz/By

C*******************************************************************

ELSEIF (nea. eq. (2)) THENC Taylor expansion

z2 = z*zz4 = z2*z2y2 = y*yy4 = y2*y2r2 = y2 + z2

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(Continued.)

P0 = (2d0*z2 y2)/(y*z)P2 = (3d0*y2 + 8d0*z2)/(r2*y*z)

C*******************************************************************

IF (me. eq. (1)) THENC Current loop

z00 = 1d0/3d0*P0z02 = 1d0/12d0*P2*d**2z04 = 5d0/96d0*(y2 + 8d0*z2)*y/(r2**3*z)*d**4z06 = 5d0/1536d0*(5*y4 + 80d0*y2*z2 128d0*z4)*y/(r2**5*z)*d**6

C*******************************************************************

ELSEIF (me. eq. (2)) THENC Pair of charges

z00 = 1d0/3d0*P0z02 = 1d0/36d0*P2*d**2z04 = 1d0/432d0*z*(15d0*y2 + 8d0*z2)/(r2**3*y)*d**4z06 = 1d0/5184d0*z*(45d0*y4 + 27d0*z2*y2 + 8d0*z4)/(r2**5*y)*d**6

C*******************************************************************

ENDIFC nT = 0, 2, 4, 6: order of Taylor expansion

rT(6) = z00 + z02 + z04 + z06rT(4) = z00 + z02 + z04rT(2) = z00 + z02rT(0) = z00rat = rT(nT)ENDIFRETURNEND

References

[1] Jackson J D 1998 Classical Electrodynamics 3rd edn (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley)[2] Griffiths D J 1999 Introduction to Electrodynamics 3rd edn (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall)[3] Bezerra M, Kort Kamp W J M, Cougo Pinto M V and Farina C 2012 How to introduce the

magnetic dipole moment Eur. J. Phys. 33 1313[4] Landau L D and Lifshitz E M 1971 The Classical Theory of Fields 3rd edn (Oxford: Pergamon)[5] Curie P 1894 Sur la symétrie dans les phénomènes physiques, symétrie d'un champ électrique et

d'un champ magnétique J. Phys. 3 393[6] Arfken G B, Weber H J and Harris F E 2012 Mathematical Methods for Physicists 7th edn

(Waltham, MA: Academic)[7] Dirac P A M 1931 Quantised singularities in the electromagnetic field Proc. R. Soc. A 133 60[8] Atkinson K E 1989 An Introduction to Numerical Analysis 2nd edn (New York: Wiley) p 420 ff

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