Electrodynamics

Catalog description

Special relativity, electromagneti fields, Maxwell's equations, conservation laws, electrostatics and magnetostatics. PHYS 557 Electrodynamics (3) The first half of the course starts from special relativity and uses Hamilton's principle to derive relativistic dynamics and Maxwell's equations. This approach, developed by Landau and Lifshitz, sets classical electrodynamics in a broad base of theoretical physics, and provides insights to solving many interesting problems that might be hard to solve starting from the traditional approach of deriving Maxwell's equations empirically through Coulomb's law, the law of Biot and Savart, Faraday's law, and Maxwell's inclusion of displacement current. The second half is based on the classic textbook by Jackson, and is devoted to application of electrodynamics in various settings. This includes dynamics of charged particles in given electromagnetic fields, with special emphasis on problems with symmetry and the guiding center dynamics. Examples of such topics include electromechanical problems with the use of Lagrangian; fields generated by given distributions of charges and currents, especially for case of small sources, and the use of multiple expansions; polarization and magnetization, and Maxwell's equations in continuous media; boundary value problems; electromagnetic waves with single frequency in vacuum and medium; wave guides and resonant cavities; the generation of electromagnetic radiation.