Electromagnetic Field Theory I
(including Analytic and Numeric Methods of Physics)
Physics 7701, Autumn 2014
Instructor: Yuri
Kovchegov
Office: M2042 Physics Research Bldg
Office Hours: stop by anytime
Course Meets: MWF 10:20 - 11:15 am, McPherson Lab 1021.
Grader: Cheng Li (office: PRB 2041)
*** First Class Meets Wednesday, August 27, 2014 ***
*** No class Monday, September 1 -- Labor Day ***
*** There will be no classes Monday, September 15, Friday, September 26, and MWF, October 6,8, 10 - I will be out of town ***
Topics:
Autumn Semester
- Special Relativity, Relativistic Mechanics
- Relativistic Charges in Electromagnetic Fields
- Lagrangian for Electromagnetic Fields, Field Strength Tensor, Delta-functions
- Maxwell Equations, Conservation Laws: Energy-Momentum Tensor, Poynting Vector and Energy Density
- Electrostatics, Poisson and Laplace Equations, Green Functions
- Boundary-Value Problems in Electrostatics: Method of Images, Orthogonal Functions, Fourier Series and Integrals, problems with spherical geometry (Legendre Polynomials, Spherical Harmonics) and problems with cylindrical geometry (Bessel Functions)
Spring Semester
- Multipole Expansion, Electrostatics of Dielectrics
- Magnetostatics: Biot and Savart Law, Ampere's Law, Magnetic Moment, Boundary Value Problems in Magnetostatics
- Electromagnetic Waves and their Propagation, Kramers-Kronig relations, Elements of Complex Calculus
- Radiation by Localized Charges, Multipole Expansion
- Scattering and Diffraction, Optical Theorem
- Radiation by Moving Charges, Lienard-Wiechert Potentials, Synchrotron Radiation
- Radiation Damping
Textbooks (E&M):
Each of the following books adequately covers most of the material that we will study in class (though with some minor variations in the order of the topics). Choose whichever one works better for you. None is as comprehensive as Jackson though. Zangwill has some good modern examples. We will mainly follow Landau & Lifshitz order of topics for the first half of the Autumn semester.
Recommended Reading (E&M):
Here are several references which may come in handy as well:
Recommended Reading (Mathematical Methods):
For the Math Methods side of the class you may want to use the following resources:
- G.B. Arfken, H.J. Weber, F.E. Harris - Mathematical Methods for Physicists, Google Books - standard Math Methods textbook, very comprehensive
- S.M. Lea - Mathematics for Physicists, Google Books - comparatively brief book, gets straight to the point fast, which is often a plus
- K. Cahill - Physical Mathematics, Google Books - contains interesting connections to modern research topics, though imho could be somewhat challenging for 1st year grad students
- NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions - lots of useful formulas
- I.S. Gradshteyn, I.M. Ryzhik - Table of Integrals, Series, and Products, Google Books - comprehensive tables for all occasions
Lecture Notes:
These are the notes for the course, I plan to post them shortly after
each lecture. For the complete notes of one past E&M class, please
see below (you can find more on my website).
- Special Relativity
- Relativistic Particles in Electromagnetic Fields
- Lagrangian for the Electromagnetic Field and Maxwell Equations
- Electrostatics
- Midterm Review
- Separation of Variables and Special Functions
- Final Review
Lecture Notes from the last year's E&M class (Physics 7401):
These are the notes for the last-year one-semester E&M course.
- Electrostatics of Macroscopic Media, Dielectrics
- Magnetostatics
- Maxwell Equations, Their Solution, Conservation Laws
- Plane Electromagnetic Waves and Wave Propagation
- Midterm Review
- Radiation
- Special Relativity
- Relativistic Charges in Electromagnetic Fields
- Final Review
Homework Assignments:
Homeworks are due at 11:59 pm on the due date. You may give them to the grader or to me, put them in either the grader's or my mailboxes in PRB or slide them under my office door if the other options are not available (please do not slide them under the grader's office door). Homeworks submitted late are penalized -10 pts. The cutoff for late HW submissions is 5 pm on the day after the HW is due. (Solutions are password
protected, they are for the use of OSU students and faculty only, please write to me if you are
interested in accessing them.)
- HW 1 (due Friday, September 5) -- Solution 1
- HW 2 (due Friday, September 12) -- Solution 2
- HW 3 (due Monday, September 22) -- Solution 3
- HW 4 (due Monday, September 29) -- Solution 4
- HW 5 (due Monday, October 13) -- Solution 5
- HW 6 (due Monday, October 20 --> deadline changed to Wednesday, October 22) -- Solution 6
- HW 7 (due Friday, October 31) -- Solution 7 (without the solution for problem 4, which has a new deadline on Nov 7)
- HW 8 (due Friday, November 7)--> deadline changed to Monday, November 10 -- Solution 8, + solution of the optional problem 4 from HW 7
- HW 9 (due Monday, November 17) -- Solution 9
- HW 10 (due Monday, November 24) -- Solution 10
- HW 11 + the Mathematica file (due Tuesday, December 2) -- Solution 11
- HW 12 (due Tuesday, December 9) -- Solution 12
- Sample problems in preparation for the final exam: Zangwill 3.5, 3.12, 3.17, 7.3, 7.6, 7.7, 7.9, 7.11, 8.3, 8.7, 8.8, 8.14 (a), 8.19, 8.20
Exams: Midterm - Monday, October 27, 6-8 pm, Smith Seminar Room Final - Thursday, December 11,
10:00am-12:15pm, McPherson Lab 1021.
Grading: 30% HW, 30% Midterm, 40% Final
Yuri Kovchegov