The 1988 Nobel Prize winner establishes the subject's mathematical background, reviews the principles of electrostatics, then introduces Einstein's special theory of relativity and applies it to topics throughout the book.
This is both a textbook and general reference on the subject of laser theory and basic laser principles. The book gives a detailed accurate treatment of laser physics which does not require a background in quantum mechanics.
Advanced Electromagnetism: Foundations, Theory and Applications treats what is conventionally called electromagnetism or Maxwell's theory within the context of gauge theory or Yang-Mills theory. A major theme of this book is that fields are not stand-alone entities but are defined by their boundary conditions. The book has practical relevance to efficient antenna design, the understanding of forces and stresses in high energy pulses, ring laser gyros, high speed computer logic elements, efficient transfer of power, parametric conversion, and many other devices and systems. Conventional electromagnetism is shown to be an underdeveloped, rather than a completely developed, field of endeavor, with major challenges in development still to be met.
Practically all of modern physics deals with fields—functions of space (or spacetime) that give the value of a certain quantity, such as the temperature, in terms of its location within a prescribed volume. Electrodynamics is a comprehensive study of the field produced by (and interacting with) charged particles, which in practice means almost all matter. Fulvio Melia's Electrodynamics offers a concise, compact, yet complete treatment of this important branch of physics. Unlike most of the standard texts, Electrodynamics neither assumes familiarity with basic concepts nor ends before reaching advanced theoretical principles. Instead this book takes a continuous approach, leading the reader from fundamental physical principles through to a relativistic Lagrangian formalism that overlaps with the field theoretic techniques used in other branches of advanced physics. Avoiding unnecessary technical details and calculations, Electrodynamics will serve both as a useful supplemental text for graduate and advanced undergraduate students and as a helpful overview for physicists who specialize in other fields.
This text provides students with the missing link that can help them master the basic principles of electromagnetics. The concept of vector fields is introduced by starting with clear definitions of position, distance, and base vectors. The symmetries of typical configurations are discussed in detail, including cylindrical, spherical, translational, and two-fold rotational symmetries. To avoid serious confusion between symbols with two indices, the text adopts a new notation: a letter with subscript 1-2 for the work done in moving a unit charge from point 2 to point 1, in which the subscript 1-2 mimics the difference in potentials, while the hyphen implies a sense of backward direction, from 2 to 1. This text includes 300 figures in which real data are drawn to scale. Many figures provide a three-dimensional view. Each subsection includes a number of examples that are solved by examining rigorous approaches in steps. Each subsection ends with straightforward exercises and answers through which students can check if they correctly understood the concepts. A total 350 examples and exercises are provided. At the end of each section, review questions are inserted to point out key concepts and relations discussed in the section. They are given with hints referring to the related equations and figures. The book contains a total of 280 end-of-chapter problems.
This excellent text covers a year's course. Topics include vectors D and H inside matter, conservation laws for energy, momentum, invariance, form invariance, covariance in special relativity, and more.
Classical Electrodynamics captures Schwinger's inimitable lecturing style, in which everything flows inexorably from what has gone before. Novel elements of the approach include the immediate inference of Maxwell's equations from Coulomb's law and (Galilean) relativity, the use of action and stationary principles, the central role of Green's functions both in statics and dynamics, and, throughout, the integration of mathematics and physics. Thus, physical problems in electrostatics are used to develop the properties of Bessel functions and spherical harmonics. The latter portion of the book is devoted to radiation, with rather complete treatments of synchrotron radiation and diffraction, and the formulation of the mode decomposition for waveguides and scattering. Consequently, the book provides the student with a thorough grounding in electrodynamics in particular, and in classical field theory in general, subjects with enormous practical applications, and which are essential prerequisites for the study of quantum field theory.An essential resource for both physicists and their students, the book includes a ?Reader's Guide,? which describes the major themes in each chapter, suggests a possible path through the book, and identifies topics for inclusion in, and exclusion from, a given course, depending on the instructor's preference. Carefully constructed problems complement the material of the text, and introduce new topics. The book should be of great value to all physicists, from first-year graduate students to senior researchers, and to all those interested in electrodynamics, field theory, and mathematical physics.The text for the graduate classical electrodynamics course was left unfinished upon Julian Schwinger's death in 1994, but was completed by his coauthors, who have brilliantly recreated the excitement of Schwinger's novel approach.
Tremendous technological developments and rapid progress in theory have opened a new area of modern physics called high-field electrodynamics: the systematic study of the interaction of relativistic electrons or positrons with ultrahigh-intensity, coherent electromagnetic radiation. This advanced undergraduate/graduate-level text provides a
"This is a concise, beginning graduate-level textbook on classical electromagnetism, the branch of physics that describes the interaction of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields. Electromagnetism (also called electrodynamics) is one of the pillars of modern physics and, as such, of the modern physics curriculum, with courses on electromagnetism required at the undergraduate and graduate levels. These courses traditionally proceed in a quasi-historical fashion, starting from equations and laws that were first formulated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and still form the foundations of our understanding of electromagnetism. However, as Robert Wald argues, teaching in this way can be imprecise and tends to promote outdated ways of thinking about the subject. This book rethinks how electromagnetism is presented at the graduate level, offering a corrective that aims to bring teaching up to date with our more modern understanding of the topic. The book begins by debunking four common misconceptions, or "myths," that can hinder a deep conceptual understanding of electromagnetism. Wald then proceeds through the major topics first-year grad courses (and textbooks) in electromagnetism typically cover, including electrostatics, dielectrics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics, geometric optics, special relativity, gauge theory, and point charge. Wald's aim throughout is to explain to students how to think about electromagnetism from a modern and mathematically precise perspective, formulating all the key conceptual ideas and results in the field clearly and concisely, while forgoing extensive collections of examples and applications. The book could be used as the basis for or as a supplement to a course, or for self-study by students seeking a deeper understanding than traditional courses and books offer"--
This book is aimed at a large audience: scientists, engineers, professors and students wise enough to keep a critical stance whenever confronted with the chilling dogmas of contemporary physics. Readers will find a tantalizing amount of material calculated to nurture their thoughts and arouse their suspicion, to some degree at least, on the so-called validity of today's most celebrated physical theories. Contents: Wave Meaning of the Special Relativity Theory; Change of Reference Frame; Relativistic and Classical Mechanics; Experimental Tests of Special Relativity; Partial Differential Equations of Second Order; The Wave Packet Concept; Electromagnetism; Electromagnetic Induction; Amp re and Lorentz Forces; The Li(r)nardOCoWiechert Potential; Analysis of the Electromagnetic Field; Photonics Versus Electromagnetism; Radiation of Extended Sources; The Green Formulation; Wave Extinction in a Dielectric; Plasma Equation. Readership: Students and academics in advanced physics."