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In physics, charge conservation is the principle, of experimental nature, 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 .
In physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves over time. Exact conservation laws include conservation of mass-energy, conservation of linear momentum, conservation of angular momentum, and conservation of electric charge.
Kirchhoff's circuit laws were originally obtained from experimental results. However, the current law can be viewed as an extension of the conservation of charge, since charge is the product of current and the time the current has been flowing. If the net charge in a region is constant, the current law will hold on the boundaries of the region.
The continuity equation says that if charge is moving out of a differential volume (i.e., divergence of current density is positive) then the amount of charge within that volume is going to decrease, so the rate of change of charge density is negative. Therefore, the continuity equation amounts to a conservation of charge.
The law of conservation of charge always applies, giving the object from which a negative charge is taken a positive charge of the same magnitude, and vice versa. Even when an object's net charge is zero, the charge can be distributed non-uniformly in the object (e.g., due to an external electromagnetic field, or bound polar
In physics a conserved current is a current, , that satisfies the continuity equation =.The continuity equation represents a conservation law, hence the name. Indeed, integrating the continuity equation over a volume , large enough to have no net currents through its surface, leads to the conservation law =, where = is the conserved quantity.
Likewise, if a theory possesses an internal chiral or axial symmetry, there will be a conserved quantity, which is called the axial charge. Further, just as the motion of an electrically charged particle produces an electric current , a moving axial charge constitutes an axial current.
The conservation of electric charge, by contrast, can be derived by considering Ψ linear in the fields φ rather than in the derivatives. [11]: 593–594 In quantum mechanics, the probability amplitude ψ(x) of finding a particle at a point x is a complex field φ, because it ascribes a complex number to every point in space and time.