Helmholtz Decomposition and Rotation Potentials in n-dimensional Cartesian Coordinates

Erhard Glötzl, Oliver Richters

This paper introduces a novel method to extend the Helmholtz Decomposition to n-dimensional sufficiently smooth and fast decaying vector fields. The rotation is described by a superposition of n(n+1)/2 rotations within the coordinate planes. The source potential and the rotation potential are obtained by convolving the source and rotation densities with the fundamental solutions of the Laplace equation. The rotation-free gradient of the source potential and the divergence-free rotation of the rotation potential sum to the original vector field. The approach relies on partial derivatives and Newton integrals and allows for a simple application of this standard method to high-dimensional vector fields, without using concepts from differential geometry and tensor calculus.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.13157