Hertz potential formalism for force-free electrodynamics and its application to Brennan–Gralla–Jacobson solutions

Abstract

The Hertz potential is a powerful tool for the source-free electrodynamics. Especially for the algebraically special spacetime background, the Hertz potential formalism simplifies the Maxwell equations quite much. In astrophysics, strong electric–magnetic field is very common. Force-free electrodynamics is a good approximation for strong enough electric–magnetic field compared to the inertial energy of the involved plasma. For example, the force-free model has been extensively used to describe the magnetosphere of stars in the universe. In this paper, we extend the Hertz potential formalism to the force-free electrodynamics. The Hertz potential formalism simplifies the force-free dynamical equations as much as that in the source-free case. As an application, we use the Hertz potential formalism to the Schwarzschild background. And the Brennan–Gralla–Jacobson solutions are recovered straightforwardly.