Modern geometry in not-so-high echelons of physics: Case studies

Abstract

In this mostly pedagogical tutorial article a brief introduction to modern geometrical treatment of fluid dynamics and electrodynamics is provided. The main technical tool is standard theory of differential forms. In fluid dynamics, the approach is based on general theory of integral invariants (due to Poincare and Cartan). Since this stuff is still not considered common knowledge, the first chapter is devoted to an introductory and self-contained exposition of both Poincare version as well as Cartan's extension of the theory. The main emphasis in fluid dynamics part of the text is on explaining basic classical results on vorticity phenomenon (vortex lines, vortex filaments etc.) in ideal fluid. In electrodynamics part, we stress the aspect of how different (in particular, rotating) observers perceive the same space-time situation. Suitable $3+1$ decomposition technique of differential forms proves to be useful for that. As a representative (an simple) example we analyze Faraday's law of induction (and explicitly compute the induced voltage) from this point of view.