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I have been trying to show that: $ \vec{B}^{2} - \vec{E}^{2} =\frac{1}{2} f^{\mu \nu }f_{\mu \nu}$

where $\vec{B}^{2}$ and $\vec{E}^{2}$ are the square of the magnitude of the magnetic field and electric field respectively, and $f^{\mu \nu }$ is the electromagnetic tensor.

so far i have tried this:

$\vec{B}^{2} - \vec{E}^{2} = \frac{1}{4}(\varepsilon^{ijk}f_{jk} )(\varepsilon_{imn}f ^{mn} )- f^{0l}f_{l0} = \frac{1}{4}(\delta_{m}^{j} \delta_{n}^{k} - \delta_{n}^{j} \delta_{m}^{k})f_{jk}f ^{mn} + f^{l0}f_{l0}$

where i used the following properties

  1. $B^{i} = \frac{1}{2}\varepsilon^{ijk}f_{jk}$

  2. $\varepsilon_{imn} \varepsilon^{ijk} = (\delta_{m}^{j} \delta_{n}^{k} - \delta_{n}^{j} \delta_{m}^{k}) $

  3. $f^{\mu \nu }=-f^{\nu \mu }$

then:

$=\frac{1}{4}(f_{mn}f^{mn}-f_{nm}f^{mn})+ f^{l0}f_{l0}= \frac{1}{2}f_{mn}f^{mn}+ f^{l0}f_{l0}$

what mistake did i make?

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2 Answers 2

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It's not so much that you made a mistake as that you missed the significance of what you found. Note that$$\begin{align}\frac12(f_{\mu\nu}f^{\mu\nu}-f_{mn}f^{mn})&=\frac12(\underbrace{f_{00}f^{00}}_0+f_{0l}f^{0l}+f_{l0}f^{l0}+\underbrace{f_{mn}f^{mn}-f_{mn}f^{mn}}_0)\\&=\frac12(f_{l0}f^{l0}+f_{l0}f^{l0})\\&=f_{l0}f^{l0}.\end{align}$$

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In fact, you did not make any mistakes. Your last row:

$\frac{1}{4}(f_{mn}f^{mn}-f_{nm}f^{mn})+ f^{l0}f_{l0}= \frac{1}{2}f_{mn}f^{mn}+ f^{l0}f_{l0} \quad m,n,l = 1,2,3$

where

$f^{l0}f_{l0} = \frac{1}{2}f^{l0}f_{l0} + \frac{1}{2}f^{0l}f_{0l}$

so

$\frac{1}{4}(f_{mn}f^{mn}-f_{nm}f^{mn})+ f^{l0}f_{l0} = \frac{1}{2}f_{mn}f^{mn} + \frac{1}{2}f^{l0}f_{l0} + \frac{1}{2}f^{0l}f_{0l} \quad m,n,l = 1,2,3$

equals to

$\frac{1}{2}f^{\mu\nu}f_{\mu\nu} \quad \mu,\nu = 0,1,2,3$

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