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Emilio Pisanty
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I don't know if you can have something as fancy as Thévenin's theorem in a general Riemannian manifold, but as a physicist I'd say you'd be better off looking at generalizations of the conductivity, $\sigma=1/\rho$, where $\rho$ is the resistivity and can be measured as $\rho=R A/L$ for a (homogeneous) wire of cross-section $A$, length $L$, and resistance $R$. Then you can formulate a local version of Ohm's law as $$\mathbf{j}=\sigma\mathbf{E},$$ where $\mathbf{j}$ is the current density, related to the current $I$ flowing through a surface $\Sigma$ as $I=\int_\Sigma \mathbf{j}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{A}$, and $\mathbf{E}$ is the electric field, related to the potential difference $V(\mathbf{x})-V(\mathbf{y})$ between arbitrary points $\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y} $ as the line integral $\Delta V=\int_{\mathbf{x}}^{\mathbf{y}} \mathbf{E}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{r}$ (independent of the integration path).

As for the second question, you'd have to solve Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 V=0$ on a rectangular-box domain $[0,L]\times[0,L]\times[0,h]$, with appropriate boundary conditions - I'm not that sure there, but I'd set $V=0$ on $(0,0,z)$ and $V=V_0$ on $(L,L,z)$ to begin with; if that does not determine a unique solution then Neumann conditions on the rest of the boundary should do it. You then find the electric field $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$ to get the current density and integrate across an appropriate spanning surface, say the other diagonal plane.

I'll try and flesh this out and fill this in when I have time.

EDIT J. Cserti's paper Application of the lattice Green's function for calculating the resistance of an infinite networks of resistors, Am. J. Phys. 68 no. 10, pp 896 (2000), doi:10.1119/1.1285881, arXiv:cond-mat/9909120, solves the discretized problem of an infinite network of resistors on a square grid (including as a special case the Nerd Sniping xkcd problem). In the continuum limit that yields a solution to this problem.

I don't know if you can have something as fancy as Thévenin's theorem in a general Riemannian manifold, but as a physicist I'd say you'd be better off looking at generalizations of the conductivity, $\sigma=1/\rho$, where $\rho$ is the resistivity and can be measured as $\rho=R A/L$ for a (homogeneous) wire of cross-section $A$, length $L$, and resistance $R$. Then you can formulate a local version of Ohm's law as $$\mathbf{j}=\sigma\mathbf{E},$$ where $\mathbf{j}$ is the current density, related to the current $I$ flowing through a surface $\Sigma$ as $I=\int_\Sigma \mathbf{j}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{A}$, and $\mathbf{E}$ is the electric field, related to the potential difference $V(\mathbf{x})-V(\mathbf{y})$ between arbitrary points $\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y} $ as the line integral $\Delta V=\int_{\mathbf{x}}^{\mathbf{y}} \mathbf{E}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{r}$ (independent of the integration path).

As for the second question, you'd have to solve Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 V=0$ on a rectangular-box domain $[0,L]\times[0,L]\times[0,h]$, with appropriate boundary conditions - I'm not that sure there, but I'd set $V=0$ on $(0,0,z)$ and $V=V_0$ on $(L,L,z)$ to begin with; if that does not determine a unique solution then Neumann conditions on the rest of the boundary should do it. You then find the electric field $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$ to get the current density and integrate across an appropriate spanning surface, say the other diagonal plane.

I'll try and flesh this out and fill this in when I have time.

I don't know if you can have something as fancy as Thévenin's theorem in a general Riemannian manifold, but as a physicist I'd say you'd be better off looking at generalizations of the conductivity, $\sigma=1/\rho$, where $\rho$ is the resistivity and can be measured as $\rho=R A/L$ for a (homogeneous) wire of cross-section $A$, length $L$, and resistance $R$. Then you can formulate a local version of Ohm's law as $$\mathbf{j}=\sigma\mathbf{E},$$ where $\mathbf{j}$ is the current density, related to the current $I$ flowing through a surface $\Sigma$ as $I=\int_\Sigma \mathbf{j}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{A}$, and $\mathbf{E}$ is the electric field, related to the potential difference $V(\mathbf{x})-V(\mathbf{y})$ between arbitrary points $\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y} $ as the line integral $\Delta V=\int_{\mathbf{x}}^{\mathbf{y}} \mathbf{E}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{r}$ (independent of the integration path).

As for the second question, you'd have to solve Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 V=0$ on a rectangular-box domain $[0,L]\times[0,L]\times[0,h]$, with appropriate boundary conditions - I'm not that sure there, but I'd set $V=0$ on $(0,0,z)$ and $V=V_0$ on $(L,L,z)$ to begin with; if that does not determine a unique solution then Neumann conditions on the rest of the boundary should do it. You then find the electric field $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$ to get the current density and integrate across an appropriate spanning surface, say the other diagonal plane.

I'll try and flesh this out and fill this in when I have time.

EDIT J. Cserti's paper Application of the lattice Green's function for calculating the resistance of an infinite networks of resistors, Am. J. Phys. 68 no. 10, pp 896 (2000), doi:10.1119/1.1285881, arXiv:cond-mat/9909120, solves the discretized problem of an infinite network of resistors on a square grid (including as a special case the Nerd Sniping xkcd problem). In the continuum limit that yields a solution to this problem.

Source Link
Emilio Pisanty
  • 2.4k
  • 23
  • 36

I don't know if you can have something as fancy as Thévenin's theorem in a general Riemannian manifold, but as a physicist I'd say you'd be better off looking at generalizations of the conductivity, $\sigma=1/\rho$, where $\rho$ is the resistivity and can be measured as $\rho=R A/L$ for a (homogeneous) wire of cross-section $A$, length $L$, and resistance $R$. Then you can formulate a local version of Ohm's law as $$\mathbf{j}=\sigma\mathbf{E},$$ where $\mathbf{j}$ is the current density, related to the current $I$ flowing through a surface $\Sigma$ as $I=\int_\Sigma \mathbf{j}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{A}$, and $\mathbf{E}$ is the electric field, related to the potential difference $V(\mathbf{x})-V(\mathbf{y})$ between arbitrary points $\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y} $ as the line integral $\Delta V=\int_{\mathbf{x}}^{\mathbf{y}} \mathbf{E}\cdot\textrm{d}\mathbf{r}$ (independent of the integration path).

As for the second question, you'd have to solve Laplace's equation $\nabla^2 V=0$ on a rectangular-box domain $[0,L]\times[0,L]\times[0,h]$, with appropriate boundary conditions - I'm not that sure there, but I'd set $V=0$ on $(0,0,z)$ and $V=V_0$ on $(L,L,z)$ to begin with; if that does not determine a unique solution then Neumann conditions on the rest of the boundary should do it. You then find the electric field $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$ to get the current density and integrate across an appropriate spanning surface, say the other diagonal plane.

I'll try and flesh this out and fill this in when I have time.