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Cartesian tensor
In geometry and linear algebra, a Cartesian tensor
uses an orthonormal basis to represent a tensor in a
Euclidean space in the form of components.
Converting a tensor's components from one such basis
to another is through an orthogonal transformation.
The most familiar coordinate systems are the two-
dimensional and three-dimensional Cartesian
coordinate systems. Cartesian tensors may be used
with any Euclidean space, or more technically, any
finite-dimensional vector space over the field of real
numbers that has an inner product.
Use of Cartesian tensors occurs in physics and
engineering, such as with the Cauchy stress tensor
and the moment of inertia tensor in rigid body
dynamics. Sometimes general curvilinear coordinates
are convenient, as in high-deformation continuum mechanics, or even necessary, as
in general relativity. While orthonormal bases may be found for some such coordinate
systems (e.g. tangent to spherical coordinates), Cartesian tensors may provide
considerable simplification for applications in which rotations of rectilinear
coordinate axes suffice. The transformation is a passive transformation, since the
coordinates are changed and not the physical system.
Cartesian basis and related terminology
Vectors in three dimensions
In 3d Euclidean space,
3
, the standard basis is e
x
, e
y
, e
z
. Each basis vector points
along the x-, y-, and z-axes, and the vectors are all unit vectors (or normalized), so the
basis is orthonormal.
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Throughout, when referring to Cartesian coordinates in three dimensions, a right-
handed system is assumed and this is much more common than a left-handed system
in practice, see orientation (vector space) for details.
For Cartesian tensors of order 1, a Cartesian vector a can be written algebraically as a
linear combination of the basis vectors e
x
, e
y
, e
z
:
where the coordinates of the vector with respect to the Cartesian basis are denoted a
x
,
a
y
, a
z
. It is common and helpful to display the basis vectors as column vectors
when we have a coordinate vector in a column vector representation:
A row vector representation is also legitimate, although in the context of general
curvilinear coordinate systems the row and column vector representations are used
separately for specific reasons see Einstein notation and covariance and
contravariance of vectors for why.
The term "component" of a vector is ambiguous: it could refer to:
a specific coordinate of the vector such as a
z
(a scalar), and similarly for x and y,
or
the coordinate scalar-multiplying the corresponding basis vector, in which case
the "y-component" of a is a
y
e
y
(a vector), and similarly for y and z.
A more general notation is tensor index notation, which has the flexibility of
numerical values rather than fixed coordinate labels. The Cartesian labels are
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replaced by tensor indices in the basis vectors e
x
e
1
, e
y
e
2
, e
z
e
3
and
coordinates A
x
A
1
, A
y
A
2
, A
z
A
3
. In general, the notation e
1
, e
2
, e
3
refers to any
basis, and A
1
, A
2
, A
3
refers to the corresponding coordinate system; although here
they are restricted to the Cartesian system. Then:
It is standard to use the Einstein notation the summation sign for summation over
an index repeated only twice within a term may be suppressed for notational
conciseness:
An advantage of the index notation over coordinate-specific notations is the
independence of the dimension of the underlying vector space, i.e. the same
expression on the right hand side takes the same form in higher dimensions (see
below). Previously, the Cartesian labels x, y, z were just labels and not indices. (It is
informal to say "i = x, y, z").
Second order tensors in three dimensions
A dyadic tensor T is an order 2 tensor formed by the tensor product ! of two
Cartesian vectors a and b, written T = a ! b. Analogous to vectors, it can be written
as a linear combination of the tensor basis e
x
! e
x
! e
xx
, e
x
! e
y
! e
xy
, ..., e
z
! e
z
! e
zz
(the right hand side of each identity is only an abbreviation, nothing more):
Representing each basis tensor as a matrix:
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then T can be represented more systematically as a matrix:
See matrix multiplication for the notational correspondence between matrices and
the dot and tensor products.
More generally, whether or not T is a tensor product of two vectors, it is always a
linear combination of the basis tensors with coordinates T
xx
, T
xy
, ... T
zz
:
while in terms of tensor indices:
and in matrix form:
Second order tensors occur naturally in physics and engineering when physical
quantities have directional dependence in the system, often in a "stimulus-response"
way. This can be mathematically seen through one aspect of tensors - they are
multilinear functions. A second order tensor T which takes in a vector u of some
magnitude and direction will return a vector v; of a different magnitude and in a
different direction to u, in general. The notation used for functions in mathematical
analysis leads us to write v = T(u),
[1]
while the same idea can be expressed in matrix
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and index notations
[2]
(including the summation convention), respectively:
By "linear", if u = !r + "s for two scalars ! and " and vectors r and s, then in function
and index notations:
and similarly for the matrix notation. The function, matrix, and index notations all
mean the same thing. The matrix forms provide a clear display of the components,
while the index form allows easier tensor-algebraic manipulation of the formulae in a
compact manner. Both provide the physical interpretation of directions; vectors have
one direction, while second order tensors connect two directions together. One can
associate a tensor index or coordinate label with a basis vector direction.
The use of second order tensors are the minimum to describe changes in magnitudes
and directions of vectors, as the dot product of two vectors is always a scalar, while
the cross product of two vectors is always a pseudovector perpendicular to the plane
defined by the vectors, so these products of vectors alone cannot obtain a new vector
of any magnitude in any direction. (See also below for more on the dot and cross
products). The tensor product of two vectors is a second order tensor, although this
has no obvious directional interpretation by itself.
The previous idea can be continued: if T takes in two vectors p and q, it will return a
scalar r. In function notation we write r = T(p, q), while in matrix and index
notations (including the summation convention) respectively:
The tensor T is linear in both input vectors. When vectors and tensors are written
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without reference to components, and indices are not used, sometimes a dot is
placed where summations over indices (known as tensor contractions) are taken. For
the above cases:
[1][2]
motivated by the dot product notation:
More generally, a tensor of order m which takes in n vectors (where n is between 0
and m inclusive) will return a tensor of order m ! n, see Tensor: As multilinear maps
for further generalizations and details. The concepts above also apply to
pseudovectors in the same way as for vectors. The vectors and tensors themselves can
vary within throughout space, in which case we have vector fields and tensor fields,
and can also depend on time.
Following are some examples:
For the electrical conduction example, the index and matrix notations would be:
while for the rotational kinetic energy T:
See also constitutive equation for more specialized examples.
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Vectors and tensors in n dimensions
In n-dimensional Euclidean space over the real numbers,
n
, the standard basis is
denoted e
1
, e
2
, e
3
, ... e
n
. Each basis vector e
i
points along the positive x
i
axis, with the
basis being orthonormal. Component j of e
i
is given by the Kronecker delta:
A vector in
n
takes the form:
Similarly for the order 2 tensor above, for each vector a and b in
n
:
or more generally:
Transformations of Cartesian vectors (any number of
dimensions)
Meaning of "invariance" under coordinate transformations
The position vector x in
n
is a simple and common example of a vector, and can be
represented in any coordinate system. Consider the case of rectangular coordinate
systems with orthonormal bases only. It is possible to have a coordinate system with
rectangular geometry if the basis vectors are all mutually perpendicular and not
normalized, in which case the basis is orthogonal but not orthonormal. However,
orthonormal bases are easier to manipulate and are often used in practice. The
following results are true for orthonormal bases, not orthogonal ones.
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In one rectangular coordinate system, x as a
contravector has coordinates x
i
and basis vectors e
i
,
while as a covector it has coordinates x
i
and basis
covectors e
i
, and we have:
In another rectangular coordinate system, x as a
contravector has coordinates x
i
and bases e
i
, while as
a covector it has coordinates x
i
and bases e
i
, and we
have:
Each new coordinate is a function of all the old ones, and vice versa for the inverse
function:
and similarly each new basis vector is a function of all the old ones, and vice versa for
the inverse function:
for all i, j.
A vector is invariant under any change of basis, so if coordinates transform according
to a transformation matrix L, the bases transform according to the matrix inverse L
!1
, and conversely if the coordinates transform according to inverse L
!1
, the bases
transform according to the matrix L. The difference between each of these
transformations is shown conventionally through the indices as superscripts for
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contravariance and subscripts for covariance, and the coordinates and bases are
linearly transformed according to the following rules:
where L
i
j
represents the entries of the transformation matrix (row number is i and
column number is j) and (L
!1
)
i
k
denotes the entries of the inverse matrix of the
matrix L
i
k
.
If L is an orthogonal transformation (orthogonal matrix), the objects transforming by
it are defined as Cartesian tensors. This geometrically has the interpretation that a
rectangular coordinate system is mapped to another rectangular coordinate system,
in which the norm of the vector x is preserved (and distances are preserved).
The determinant of L is det(L) = 1, which corresponds to two types of orthogonal
transformation: (+1) for rotations and (!1) for improper rotations (including
reflections).
There are considerable algebraic simplifications, the matrix transpose is the inverse
from the definition of an orthogonal transformation:
From the previous table, orthogonal transformations of covectors and contravectors
are identical. There is no need to differ between raising and lowering indices, and in
this context and applications to physics and engineering the indices are usually all
subscripted to remove confusion for exponents. All indices will be lowered in the
remainder of this article. One can determine the actual raised and lowered indices by
considering which quantities are covectors or contravectors, and the relevant
transformation rules.
Exactly the same transformation rules apply to any vector a, not only the position
vector. If its components a
i
do not transform according to the rules, a is not a vector.
Despite the similarity between the expressions above, for the change of coordinates
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such as x
j
= L
i
j
x
i
, and the action of a tensor on a vector like b
i
= T
ij
a
j
, L is not a
tensor, but T is. In the change of coordinates, L is a matrix, used to relate two
rectangular coordinate systems with orthonormal bases together. For the tensor
relating a vector to a vector, the vectors and tensors throughout the equation all
belong to the same coordinate system and basis.
Derivatives and Jacobian matrix elements
The entries of L are partial derivatives of the new or old coordinates with respect to
the old or new coordinates, respectively.
Differentiating x
i
with respect to x
k
:
so
is an element of the Jacobian matrix. There is a (partially mnemonical)
correspondence between index positions attached to L and in the partial derivative: i
at the top and j at the bottom, in each case, although for Cartesian tensors the indices
can be lowered.
Conversely, differentiating x
j
with respect to x
i
:
so
is an element of the inverse Jacobian matrix, with a similar index correspondence.
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Many sources state transformations in terms of the partial derivatives:
and the explicit matrix equations in 3d are:
similarly for
Projections along coordinate axes
As with all linear transformations, L depends on the basis chosen. For two
orthonormal bases
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projecting x to the x axes:
projecting x to the x axes:
Hence the components reduce to direction cosines between the x
i
and x
j
axes:
where #
ij
and #
ji
are the angles between the x
i
and x
j
axes. In general, #
ij
is not equal
to #
ji
, because for example #
12
and #
21
are two different angles.
The transformation of coordinates can be written:
and the explicit matrix equations in 3d are:
similarly for
The geometric interpretation is the x
i
components equal to the sum of projecting the
x
j
components onto the x
j
axes.
The numbers e
i
"e
j
arranged into a matrix would form a symmetric matrix (a matrix
equal to its own transpose) due to the symmetry in the dot products, in fact it is the
metric tensor g. By contrast e
i
"e
j
or e
i
"e
j
do not form symmetric matrices in general,
as displayed above. Therefore, while the L matrices are still orthogonal, they are not
symmetric.
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Apart from a rotation about any one axis, in which the x
i
and x
i
for some i coincide,
the angles are not the same as Euler angles, and so the L matrices are not the same as
the rotation matrices.
Transformation of the dot and cross products (three dimensions
only)
The dot product and cross product occur very frequently, in applications of vector
analysis to physics and engineering, examples include:
power transferred P by an object exerting a force F with velocity v along a
straight-line path:
tangential velocity v at a point x of a rotating rigid body with angular velocity !:
potential energy U of a magnetic dipole of magnetic moment m in a uniform
external magnetic field B:
angular momentum J for a particle with position vector r and momentum p:
torque " acting on an electric dipole of electric dipole moment p in a uniform
external electric field E:
induced surface current density j
S
in a magnetic material of magnetization M on
a surface with unit normal n:
How these products transform under orthogonal transformations is illustrated below.
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Dot product, Kronecker delta, and metric tensor
The dot product " of each possible pairing of the basis vectors follows from the basis
being orthonormal. For perpendicular pairs we have
while for parallel pairs we have
Replacing Cartesian labels by index notation as shown above, these results can be
summarized by
where $
ij
are the components of the Kronecker delta. The Cartesian basis can be used
to represent $ in this way.
In addition, each metric tensor component g
ij
with respect to any basis is the dot
product of a pairing of basis vectors:
For the Cartesian basis the components arranged into a matrix are:
so are the simplest possible for the metric tensor, namely the $:
This is not true for general bases: orthogonal coordinates have diagonal metrics
containing various scale factors (i.e. not necessarily 1), while general curvilinear
coordinates could also have nonzero entries for off-diagonal components.
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The dot product of two vectors a and b transforms according to
which is intuitive, since the dot product of two vectors is a single scalar independent
of any coordinates. This also applies more generally to any coordinate systems, not
just rectangular ones; the dot product in one coordinate system is the same in any
other.
Cross and product, Levi-Civita symbol, and pseudovectors
Non-zero values of the Levi-Civita symbol !
ijk
as the
volume e
i
e
j
! e
k
of a cube spanned by the 3d
orthonormal basis.
For the cross product # of two vectors, the results are (almost) the other way round.
Again, assuming a right-handed 3d Cartesian coordinate system, cyclic permutations
in perpendicular directions yield the next vector in the cyclic collection of vectors:
while parallel vectors clearly vanish:
and replacing Cartesian labels by index notation as above, these can be summarized
by:
where i, j, k are indices which take values 1, 2, 3. It follows that:
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These permutation relations and their corresponding values are important, and there
is an object coinciding with this property: the Levi-Civita symbol, denoted by %. The
Levi-Civita symbol entries can be represented by the Cartesian basis:
which geometrically corresponds to the volume of a cube spanned by the orthonormal
basis vectors, with sign indicating orientation (and not a "positive or negative
volume"). Here, the orientation is fixed by %
123
= +1, for a right-handed system. A left-
handed system would fix %
123
= !1 or equivalently %
321
= +1.
The scalar triple product can now be written:
with the geometric interpretation of volume (of the parallelepiped spanned by a, b, c)
and algebraically is a determinant:
[3]
This in turn can be used to rewrite the cross product of two vectors as follows:
Contrary to its appearance, the Levi-Civita symbol is not a tensor, but a
pseudotensor, the components transform according to:
Therefore the transformation of the cross product of a and b is:
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and so a # b transforms as a pseudovector, because of the determinant factor.
The tensor index notation applies to any object which has entities that form
multidimensional arrays not everything with indices is a tensor by default. Instead,
tensors are defined by how their coordinates and basis elements change under a
transformation from one coordinate system to another.
Note the cross product of two vectors is a pseudovector, while the cross product of a
pseudovector with a vector is another vector.
Applications of the ! tensor and " pseudotensor
Other identities can be formed from the $ tensor and % pseudotensor, a notable and
very useful identity is one that converts two Levi-Civita symbols adjacently contracted
over two indices into an antisymmetrized combination of Kronecker deltas:
The index forms of the dot and cross products, together with this identity, greatly
facilitate the manipulation and derivation of other identities in vector calculus and
algebra, which in turn are used extensively in physics and engineering. For instance,
it is clear the dot and cross products are distributive over vector addition:
without resort to any geometric constructions - the derivation in each case is a quick
line of algebra. Although the procedure is less obvious, the vector triple product can
also be derived. Rewriting in index notation:
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and because cyclic permutations of indices in the % symbol does not change its value,
cyclically permuting indices in %
k&m
to obtain %
&mk
allows us to use the above $-%
identity to convert the % symbols into $ tensors:
thusly:
Note this is antisymmetric in b and c, as expected from the left hand side. Similarly,
via index notation or even just cyclically relabelling a, b, and c in the previous result
and taking the negative:
and the difference in results show that the cross product is not associative. More
complex identities, like quadruple products;
and so on, can be derived in a similar manner.
Transformations of Cartesian tensors (any number of
dimensions)
Tensors are defined as quantities which transform in a certain way under linear
transformations of coordinates.
Second order
Let a = a
i
e
i
and b = b
i
e
i
be two vectors, so that they transform according to a
j
= a
i
L
ij
,
b
j
= b
i
L
ij
.
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Taking the tensor product gives:
then applying the transformation to the components
and to the bases
gives the transformation law of an order-2 tensor. The tensor a!b is invariant under
this transformation:
More generally, for any order-2 tensor
the components transform according to;
,
and the basis transforms by:
If R does not transform according to this rule - whatever quantity R may be, it's not
an order 2 tensor.
Any order
More generally, for any order p tensor
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the components transform according to;
and the basis transforms by:
For a pseudotensor S of order p, the components transform according to;
Pseudovectors as antisymmetric second order tensors
The antisymmetric nature of the cross product can be recast into a tensorial form as
follows.
[4]
Let c be a vector, a be a pseudovector, b be another vector, and T be a
second order tensor such that:
As the cross product is linear in a and b, the components of T can be found by
inspection, and they are:
so the pseudovector a can be written as an antisymmetric tensor. This transforms as a
tensor, not a pseudotensor. For the mechanical example above for the tangential
velocity of a rigid body, given by v = ! # x, this can be rewritten as v = # x where #
is the tensor corresponding to the pseudovector !:
For an example in electromagnetism, while the electric field E is a vector field, the
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magnetic field B is a pseudovector field. These fields are defined from the Lorentz
force for a particle of electric charge q traveling at velocity v:
and considering the second term containing the cross product of a pseudovector B
and velocity vector v, it can be written in matrix form, with F, E, and v as column
vectors and B as an antisymmetric matrix:
If a pseudovector is explicitly given by a cross product of two vectors (as opposed to
entering the cross product with another vector), then such pseudovectors can also be
written as antisymmetric tensors of second order, with each entry a component of the
cross product. The angular momentum of a classical pointlike particle orbiting about
an axis, defined by J = x # p, is another example of a pesudovector, with
corresponding antisymmetric tensor:
Although Cartesian tensors do not occur in the theory of relativity; the tensor form of
orbital angular momentum J enters the spacelike part of the relativistic angular
momentum tensor, and the above tensor form of the magnetic field B enters the
spacelike part of the electromagnetic tensor.
Vector and tensor calculus
It should be emphasized the following formulae are only so simple in Cartesian
coordinates - in general curvilinear coordinates there are factors of the metric and its
determinant - see tensors in curvilinear coordinates for more general analysis.
Vector calculus
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Following are the differential operators of vector calculus. Throughout, left $(r, t) be
a scalar field, and
be vector fields, in which all scalar and vector fields are functions of the position
vector r and time t.
The gradient operator in Cartesian coordinates is given by:
and in index notation, this is usually abbreviated in various ways:
This operator acts on a scalar field $ to obtain the vector field directed in the
maximum rate of increase of $:
The index notation for the dot and cross products carries over to the differential
operators of vector calculus.
[5]
The directional derivative of a scalar field $ is the rate of change of $ along some
direction vector a (not necessarily a unit vector), formed out of the components of a
and the gradient:
The divergence of a vector field A is:
Note the interchange of the components of the gradient and vector field yields a
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different differential operator
which could act on scalar or vector fields. In fact, if A is replaced by the velocity field
u(r, t) of a fluid, this is a term in the material derivative (with many other names) of
continuum mechanics, with another term being the partial time derivative:
which usually acts on the velocity field leading to the non-linearity in the Navier-
Stokes equations.
As for the curl of a vector field A, this can be defined as a pseudovector field by means
of the % symbol:
which is only valid in three dimensions, or an antisymmetric tensor field of second
order via antisymmetrization of indices, indicated by delimiting the antisymmetrized
indices by square brackets (see Ricci calculus):
which is valid in any number of dimensions. In each case, the order of the gradient
and vector field components should not be interchanged as this would result in a
different differential operator:
which could act on scalar or vector fields.
Finally, the Laplacian operator is defined in two ways, the divergence of the gradient
of a scalar field $:
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or the square of the gradient operator, which acts on a scalar field $ or a vector field
A:
In physics and engineering, the gradient, divergence, curl, and Laplacian operator
arise inevitably in fluid mechanics, Newtonian gravitation, electromagnetism, heat
conduction, and even quantum mechanics.
Vector calculus identities can be derived in a similar way to those of vector dot and
cross products and combinations. For example, in three dimensions, the curl of a
cross product of two vector fields A and B:
where the product rule was used, and throughout the differential operator was not
interchanged with A or B. Thus:
Tensor calculus
One can continue the operations on tensors of higher order. Let T = T(r, t) denote a
second order tensor field, again dependent on the position vector r and time t.
For instance, the gradient of a vector field in two equivalent notations ("dyadic" and
"tensor", respectively) is:
which is a tensor field of second order.
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The divergence of a tensor is:
which is a vector field. This arises in continuum mechanics in Cauchy's laws of motion
- the divergence of the Cauchy stress tensor $ is a vector field, related to body forces
acting on the fluid.
Difference from the standard tensor calculus
Cartesian tensors are as in tensor algebra, but Euclidean structure of and restriction
of the basis brings some simplifications compared to the general theory.
The general tensor algebra consists of general mixed tensors of type (p, q):
with basis elements:
the components transform according to:
as for the bases:
For Cartesian tensors, only the order p + q of the tensor matters in a Euclidean space
with an orthonormal basis, and all p + q indices can be lowered. A Cartesian basis
does not exist unless the vector space has a positive-definite metric, and thus cannot
be used in relativistic contexts.
History
Dyadic tensors were historically the first approach to formulating second-order