The presence of a magnetic field is frame-dependent.
According to special relativity and classical electrodynamics, electric and magnetic fields mix and transform when changing reference frames, meaning the presence and magnitude of a magnetic field depend entirely on the observer's state of motion.
The claim is a well-established tenet of classical electromagnetism and special relativity (moving charges produce magnetic fields, or pure electric fields in one frame can appear as combined electric and magnetic fields in another). Papers discussing relativistic electrodynamics and coordinate transformations support this viewpoint, while no papers contradict it.
Snyder DM. Through the Looking Glass: How to Understand Electromagnetic Phenomena, Including Neural Oscillations. 2025. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a2jhv_v1
Paper 7 discusses how electromagnetic phenomena and fields transform between relative coordinate systems under special relativity.
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Azar S, Rodríguez-Fortuño FJ, Golat S. Fresnel reflection coefficients in the Fourier domain for a planar surface in uniform motion parallel to its interface.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-28668-1
Paper 10 calculates optical and electromagnetic fields using special relativity and classical electrodynamics for moving reference frames.
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