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In mathematics, a bivector or 2-vector is a quantity in exterior algebra or geometric algebra that extends the idea of scalars and vectors. Considering a scalar as a degree-zero quantity and a vector as a degree-one quantity, a bivector is of degree two. Bivectors have applications in many areas of mathematics and physics.
the bivector has two distinct principal null directions; in this case, the bivector is called non-null. Furthermore, for any non-null bivector, the two eigenvalues associated with the two distinct principal null directions have the same magnitude but opposite sign, λ = ±ν, so we have three subclasses of non-null bivectors: spacelike: ν = 0
The source free equations can be written by the action of the exterior derivative on this 2-form. But for the equations with source terms (Gauss's law and the Ampère-Maxwell equation), the Hodge dual of this 2-form is needed. The Hodge star operator takes a p-form to a (n − p)-form, where n is the number of dimensions.
A two-vector or bivector [1] is a tensor of type () and it is the dual of a two-form, meaning that it is a linear functional which maps two-forms to the real numbers (or more generally, to scalars). The tensor product of a pair of vectors is a two-vector. Then, any two-form can be expressed as a linear combination of tensor products of pairs of ...
This theory stipulated that all the laws of physics should take the same form in all coordinate systems – this led to the introduction of tensors. The tensor formalism also leads to a mathematically simpler presentation of physical laws. The inhomogeneous Maxwell equation leads to the continuity equation:
Examples of geometric algebras applied in physics include the spacetime algebra (and the less common algebra of physical space). Geometric calculus , an extension of GA that incorporates differentiation and integration , can be used to formulate other theories such as complex analysis and differential geometry , e.g. by using the Clifford ...
For example, in an oriented 3-dimensional Euclidean space, an oriented plane can be represented by the exterior product of two basis vectors, and its Hodge dual is the normal vector given by their cross product; conversely, any vector is dual to the oriented plane perpendicular to it, endowed with a suitable bivector.
A bivector is an element of the antisymmetric tensor product of a tangent space with itself. In geometric algebra, also, a bivector is a grade 2 element (a 2-vector) resulting from the wedge product of two vectors, and so it is geometrically an oriented area, in the same way a vector is an oriented line segment.