Electrodynamics and geometric continuum mechanics

Abstract

This paper offers an informal instructive introduction to some of the main notions of geometric continuum mechanics for the case of smooth fields. We use a metric invariant stress theory of continuum mechanics to formulate a simple generalization of the fields of electrodynamics and Maxwell’s equations to general differentiable manifolds of any dimension, thus viewing generalized electrodynamics as a special case of continuum mechanics. The basic kinematic variable is the potential, which is represented as a p-form in an n-dimensional spacetime. The stress for the case of generalized electrodynamics is assumed to be represented by an \((n-p-1)\)-form, a generalization of the Maxwell 2-form.