Lectures: Tue. and Thu., 9:30-11:00 AM in Lecture Hall 2 of the Physics Department
Problem sets: Roughly one every 10 days, about 10 in all
Evaluation: 20% homework, 15% midterm 1, 30% midterm 2 and 35% final
Course Outline: Maxwell's equations, divergence and curl of electric and magnetic fields, Helmholtz theorem. Electrostatics, Laplace's and Poisson's equations, uniqueness theorem, conductors, capacitance, method of images, solutions of Laplace's equations in different geometries, Green's functions in electrostatics, conformal mapping, multipole expansion, dielectrics. Magnetostatics, magnetic vector potential, magnetic materials, ferromagnetism, magnetic work. Time varying fields, Faraday's law, induction, energy and momentum of electromagnetic fields, Poynting vector, conservation laws. Electromagnetic waves, wave optics, polarization, Fresnel equations, Stokes parameters, waveguides. Radiation from accelarating charges, Lienard-Wiechert potentials, radiation reaction. Special theory of relativity, Lorentz invariance, Maxwell's equations in covariant form, electromagnetic field tensor, gauge invariance. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation of classical electrodynamics, Rayleigh-Jeans law. Time permitting, one topic from among magnetohydrodynamics, axion electrodynamics and Chern-Simons theory.
Recommended textbooks:
1) Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths
2) Classical Electrodynamics by J. D. Jackson
3) Classical Electricity and Magnetism by W. Panofsky and M. Phillips
4) The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. II by R. P. Feynman
5) Electricity and Magnetism (Berekeley Physics Course Vol. 2) by E. M. Purcell
Problem Sets: