The spatiotemporal profile of the electric field around a high-energy electron beam was visualized using an ultrafast technique based on electro-optic sampling. By investigating the formation of the Coulomb field it was possible to experimentally confirm the validity of the predictions of special relativity regarding electromagnetic fields.
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References
Einstein, A. Zur Elektro dynamik bewegter Körper. Ann. Phys. 17, 891–921 (1905). The first paper on the theory of special relativity.
Reinhardt, S. et al. Test of relativistic time dilation with fast optical atomic clocks at different velocities. Nat. Phys. 3, 861–864 (2007). This paper describes an experimental test of time dilation using atomic clocks that are travelling at different speeds.
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Jackson, J. D. Classical Electrodynamics 3rd edn (Wiley, 1998). A famous textbook on electromagnetism, which describes the details of special relativity including the special relativistic properties of the Coulomb fields.
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This is a summary of: Ota, M. et al. Ultrafast visualization of an electric field under the Lorentz transformation. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01767-w (2022).
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Experimentally confirming the special relativistic properties of Coulomb fields. Nat. Phys. 18, 1404–1405 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01768-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01768-9