Fundamental physical law – electric charge is continuously conserved in space and time
This article is about the conservation of electric charge. For a general theoretical concept, see
charge (physics).
In
physics, charge conservation is the principle that the total
electric charge in an
isolated system never changes.[1] The net quantity of electric charge, the amount of
positive charge minus the amount of
negative charge in the universe, is always conserved. Charge conservation, considered as a
physical conservation law, implies that the change in the amount of electric charge in any volume of space is exactly equal to the amount of charge flowing into the volume minus the amount of charge flowing out of the volume. In essence, charge conservation is an accounting relationship between the amount of charge in a region and the flow of charge into and out of that region, given by a
continuity equation between
charge density and
current density.
This does not mean that individual positive and negative charges cannot be created or destroyed. Electric charge is carried by
subatomic particles such as
electrons and
protons.
Charged particles can be created and destroyed in elementary particle reactions. In
particle physics, charge conservation means that in reactions that create charged particles, equal numbers of positive and negative particles are always created, keeping the net amount of charge unchanged. Similarly, when particles are destroyed, equal numbers of positive and negative charges are destroyed. This property is supported without exception by all empirical observations so far.[1]
Although conservation of charge requires that the total quantity of charge in the universe is constant, it leaves open the question of what that quantity is. Most evidence indicates that the net charge in the universe is zero;[2][3] that is, there are equal quantities of positive and negative charge.
History
Charge conservation was first proposed by British scientist
William Watson in 1746 and American statesman and scientist
Benjamin Franklin in 1747, although the first convincing proof was given by
Michael Faraday in 1843.[4][5]
it is now discovered and demonstrated, both here and in Europe, that the Electrical Fire is a real Element, or Species of Matter, not created by the Friction, but collected only.
— Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Cadwallader Colden, 5 June 1747[6]
Mathematically, we can state the law of charge conservation as a
continuity equation:
where is the electric charge accumulation rate in a specific volume at time t, is the amount of charge flowing into the volume and is the amount of charge flowing out of the volume; both amounts are regarded as generic functions of time.
The integrated continuity equation between two time values reads:
The general solution is obtained by fixing the initial condition time , leading to the
integral equation:
The condition corresponds to the absence of charge quantity change in the control volume: the system has reached a
steady state. From the above condition, the following must hold true:
therefore, and are equal (not necessarily constant) over time, then the overall charge inside the control volume does not change. This deduction could be derived directly from the continuity equation, since at steady state holds, and implies .
The term on the left is the rate of change of the
charge densityρ at a point. The term on the right is the
divergence of the current density J at the same point. The equation equates these two factors, which says that the only way for the charge density at a point to change is for a current of charge to flow into or out of the point. This statement is equivalent to a conservation of
four-current.
Mathematical derivation
The net current into a volume is
where S = ∂V is the boundary of V oriented by outward-pointing
normals, and dS is shorthand for NdS, the outward pointing normal of the boundary ∂V. Here J is the current density (charge per unit area per unit time) at the surface of the volume. The vector points in the direction of the current.
Since this is true for every volume, we have in general
Derivation from Maxwell's Laws
The invariance of charge can be derived as a corollary of Maxwell's equations. The left-hand side of the modified Ampere's law has zero divergence by the
div–curl identity. Expanding the divergence of the right-hand side, interchanging derivatives, and applying Gauss's law gives:
i.e.,
By the Gauss divergence theorem, this means the rate of change of charge in a fixed volume equals the net current flowing through the boundary:
In particular, in an isolated system the total charge is conserved.
Connection to gauge invariance
Charge conservation can also be understood as a consequence of symmetry through
Noether's theorem, a central result in theoretical physics that asserts that each
conservation law is associated with a
symmetry of the underlying physics. The symmetry that is associated with charge conservation is the global
gauge invariance of the
electromagnetic field.[7] This is related to the fact that the electric and magnetic fields are not changed by different choices of the value representing the zero point of
electrostatic potential. However the full symmetry is more complicated, and also involves the
vector potential. The full statement of gauge invariance is that the physics of an electromagnetic field are unchanged when the scalar and vector potential are shifted by the gradient of an arbitrary
scalar field:
In quantum mechanics the scalar field is equivalent to a
phase shift in the
wavefunction of the charged particle:
so gauge invariance is equivalent to the well known fact that changes in the overall phase of a wavefunction are unobservable, and only changes in the magnitude of the wavefunction result in changes to the probability function .[8]
Gauge invariance is a very important, well established property of the electromagnetic field and has many testable consequences. The theoretical justification for charge conservation is greatly strengthened by being linked to this symmetry.[citation needed] For example,
gauge invariance also requires that the
photon be massless, so the good experimental evidence that the photon has zero mass is also strong evidence that charge is conserved.[9]Gauge invariance also implies quantization of hypothetical magnetic charges.[8]
Even if gauge symmetry is exact, however, there might be apparent electric charge non-conservation if charge could leak from our normal 3-dimensional space into hidden
extra dimensions.[10][11]
Experimental evidence
Simple arguments rule out some types of charge nonconservation. For example, the magnitude of the
elementary charge on positive and negative particles must be extremely close to equal, differing by no more than a factor of 10−21 for the case of protons and electrons.[12] Ordinary matter contains equal numbers of positive and negative particles,
protons and
electrons, in enormous quantities. If the elementary charge on the electron and proton were even slightly different, all matter would have a large electric charge and would be mutually repulsive.
The best experimental tests of electric charge conservation are searches for
particle decays that would be allowed if electric charge is not always conserved. No such decays have ever been seen.[13]
The best experimental test comes from searches for the energetic photon from an
electron decaying into a
neutrino and a single
photon:
but there are theoretical arguments that such single-photon decays will never occur even if charge is not conserved.[16]
Charge disappearance tests are sensitive to decays without energetic photons, other unusual charge violating processes such as an electron spontaneously changing into a
positron,[17]
and to electric charge moving into other dimensions.
The best experimental bounds on charge disappearance are:
e → anything
mean lifetime is greater than 6.4×1024 years (68%
CL)[18]
n → p + ν + ν
charge non-conserving decays are less than 8 × 10−27 (68%
CL) of all
neutron decays[19]
^P. Belli; et al. (1999). "Charge non-conservation restrictions from the nuclear levels excitation of 129Xe induced by the electron's decay on the atomic shell". Physics Letters B. 465 (1–4): 315–322.
Bibcode:
1999PhLB..465..315B.
doi:
10.1016/S0370-2693(99)01091-6.
This is the most stringent of several limits given in Table 1 of this paper.