Electromagnetism – How Does Special Relativity Explain the Attraction Between Two Parallel Currents?

electromagnetismspecial-relativity

This has been answered a lot of times, and I have been reading about it on many websites, including PSE, but I still don't get it. So please don't mark it as a duplicate unless it really is one.

Two parallel wires at rest don't attract or repel each other because both of them have roughly the same amount of electrons and protons, so their net charges are mostly zero.

If there's a current (in both wires, same direction), the attraction between the wires can be calculated

  1. using Ampère's force law
  2. using the Maxwell equations (the current creates a magnetic field)
  3. using Special Relativity

I want to understand the third case.

Take the reference frame of the moving electrons. Due to relativistic length contraction, the protons get closer together, so the number of protons per length unit is higher than that of the electrons. So far so good.

At this point, all answers to this question just go like

Because wire 2 has more protons than electrons (per length unit), the electrons in wire 1 are attracted to wire 2, so the two wires attract each other.

But wire 1 has more protons too! Both wires become effectively positively charged due to the movement of the electrons. Because both wires are positively charged, they should repel each other.

Yes the electrons in wire 1 are attracted to wire 2 because of wire 2's net positive charge. But the protons in wire 1 are repelled from wire 2 because of the same reason. And there are more protons (per unit length) in wire 1, so the repellent force is stronger than the attraction.

So, again: Why do the wires attract each other?

EDIT: Maybe it has to do with the fact that the electrons can "re-arrange" themselves to counterbalance the positive charge? But then both wires would again have zero net charge.

EDIT 2: Here are some PSE posts and websites that try to answer this question:

Relativity and Current in Wire

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-do-two-wires-with-currents-in-the-same-direction-attract.454353/ (multiple answers)

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-two-wires-with-current-flowing-in-the-same-direction-attract-each-other-and-two-wires-with-current-flowing-in-opposite-direction-repel (first answer)

However, as I said, they don't go into my interpretation that both wires should have the same net charge and thus should repel each other.

Best Answer

As far as your comment goes, you mean there is an absolute symmetry between the 2 wires. Maybe, but one thing I must tell you that when you are considering the electrons in WIRE 1, the relativistic effects will be as follows:

  1. The electrons in their reference frame will consider the protons IN WIRE 2 to be in motion.
  2. Then due to relativistic length contraction, the electrons will observe that WIRE 2 has a higher positive charge density. So the electrons will face more Coulombic attraction from the WIRE 2 than repulsion from the electrons in that wire.
  3. Most importantly, where I think you are going wrong, the electrons in WIRE 1 will NEVER see the protons in WIRE 1 to be MORE as you say. That is, electrons in WIRE 1 will see that WIRE 2 has a higher positive charge density than WIRE 1 always due to special relativity and nothing else. On the other hand, in a similar fashion, electrons in WIRE 2 will see that WIRE 1 has a higher positive charge density than WIRE 2 always due to special relativity and nothing else.

Hope your doubt has been resolved.