AN ACTION PRINCIPLE FOR MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS

Abstract

The equations of motion of an inviscid, infinitely conducting fluid in an electromagnetic field are transformed into a form suitable for an action principle. An action principle from which these equations may be derived is found. The conservation laws follow from invariance properties of the action. The space–time invariances lead to the conservation of momentum, energy, angular momentum, and center of mass, while the gauge invariances lead to conservation of mass, a generalization of the Helmholtz vortex theorem of hydrodyanmics, and the conservation of the volume integrals of A∙B and v∙B, where A is the vector potential, B is the magnetic induction, and v is the fluid velocity.