The electromagnetic field in accelerated frames

Abstract

We develop a geometrical framework that allows to obtain the electromagnetic field quantities in accelerated frames. The frame of arbitrary accelerated observers in space-time is defined by a suitable set of tetrad fields, whose timelike components are adapted to the worldlines of a field of observers. We consider the Faraday tensor and Maxwell's equations as abstract tensor quantities in space-time, and make use of tetrad fields to project the electromagnetic field quantities in the accelerated frames. As an application, plane and spherical electromagnetic waves are projected in linearly accelerated frames in Minkowski space-time. We show that the amplitude, frequency and the wave vector of the plane wave in the accelerated frame vary with time, while the light speed remains constant. We also obtain the variation of the Poynting vector with time in the accelerated frame.