1TT721 - F4, Q4, NVP4, gradU, AIM. 5 points = 7.5 ECTS credits.

Classical Electrodynamics

Syllabus

General

This course aims at giving a solid foundation for advanced electrodynamics and its applications, particularly radiation phenomena. The treatment is completely general and fully relativistic and includes some elements of semiclassical quantum electrodynamics. Paticular focus is given on radiation phenomena, including antennas, radiation from accelerated charge distributions in vacuum (bremsstrahlung, cyclotron/synchrotron radiation) and in matter (Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation)

Main Textbook

The lectures and tutorials follow closely the presentation in the freely downloadable textbook
Bo Thidé, Electromagnetic Field Theory, Upsilon Books.

Supplementary Textbooks

J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics (Third Edition), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998 (ISBN 0-471-43132-X). This is the latest edition of the most well-known textbook on Classical Electrodynamis there is. The on-line textbook by Bo Thidé tries to present essentially the same material as in the second half of Jackson's book but from a sligthly different, and hopefully more modern, angle.

W. Panofsky and M. Phillips, Classical Electricity and Magnetism (Second Edition), Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., World Student Series Edition, Sixth Printing, 1975 (ISBN 0-201-05702-6). This excellent and widely used textbook is now in print again as a Dover Publication.

A. O. Barut, Electrodynamics and Cassical Theory of Fields and Particles, Dover Publications,, Inc., 1980 (ISBN 0-486-64038-3). A fantastic little book which focuses on the more advanced and fundamental aspects of modern electrodynamics.

Syllabus/Course Contents

MATHEMATICAL METHODS

Vectors (ordinary vectors, pseudovectors, complex vectors)

Fields

Vector algebra

Vector analysis

Analytical mechanics

CLASSICAL ELECTRODYNAMICS

Electrostatics

Magnetostatics

Electrodynamics

Electromagnetic duality

ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

The Wave Equations

Plane Waves

Observables and Averages

ELECTROMAGNETIC POTENTIALS

The Electrostatic Scalar Potential

The Magnetostatic Vector Potential

The Electrodynamic Potentials

Gauge Transformations

Gauge Conditions

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND MATTER

Electric Polarisation and Displacement

Magnetisation and the Magnetising Field

Energy and Momentum

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS FROM ARBITRARY SOURCE DISTRIBUTIONS

The Magnetic Field

The Electric Field

The Radiation Fields

Radiated Energy

ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION AND RADIATING SYSTEMS

Radiation from Extended Sources

Multipole Radiation

Radiation from a Localised Charge in Arbitrary Motion

Bremsstrahlung (Breaking Radiation)

Cyclotron and Synchrotron Radiation

Radiation from Charges Moving in Matter

RELATIVISTIC ELECTRODYNAMICS

The Special Theory of Relativity

Covariant Classical Mechanics

Covariant Classical Electrodynamics

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND PARTICLES

Charged Particles in an Electromagnetic Field

Covariant Field Theory