Michael Perrone presents Exploring Dielectricity, beginning with the statement that Steinmetz, Tesla, and other early scientists spoke of dielectricity as part of magnetism. His talk asks what that statement actually means.
The presentation explains that a dielectric is usually understood as a solid material with electric susceptibility, not necessarily magnetic susceptibility. Perrone then shows how magnetism can be understood as a special relativistic electric effect, while also introducing a general relativistic term that he says is overlooked from the special relativistic perspective.
He discusses the Lorentz scalar, its relationship to electromagnetism, and why it may fail to follow outside of a three-dimensional context. Perrone describes this object as having units of Teslas and implying a sphere of charge collapsing inward or flowing outward from a central point, potentially forming a timelike component of the magnetic field.
The talk develops an intuitive picture of vacuum flux polarization and scalar fields free from the confines of matter, with possible implications for the spin 0 graviton and the compressibility of space.