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How is Hodge theory of harmonic forms related to maxwell's equations.Atiyah says that Hodge was directly motivated by considerations of maxwell's equations while commenting on donaldson.

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In the absence of electric current, Maxwell's equations say precisely that the electromagnetic potential is a harmonic 1-form; see Wikipedia. This is in a space-time manifold, so it isn't the usual Hodge theory. Being harmonic in space-time is a wave equation, not an electrostatics equation. But if your space-time is a product of a Riemannian space manifold and a time direction, then time invariance of the electromagnetic potential reduces the equations of motion to harmonicity in the sense of the Hodge Laplacian.

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  • $\begingroup$ Actually it's the fieldstrength which is harmonic. Maxwell's equations in vacuo are $$dF =0 \qquad\text{and}\qquad d\star F = 0$, where $F$ is the fieldstrength 2-form. $\endgroup$ Mar 11, 2013 at 8:52
  • $\begingroup$ Oops. As José Figueroa-O'Farrill points out, it is the field strength, not the potential, which is harmonic. $\endgroup$
    – Ben McKay
    Mar 11, 2013 at 10:12
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    $\begingroup$ ...potential is also harmonic in Lorentz gauge $\endgroup$
    – Y Macdisi
    Mar 11, 2013 at 21:21

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