P507 Electricity and Magnetism II



Class meets TR 1:25-3:20 in SW 217

 

Chuck Horowitz

Office: SW 233, phone 5-0303

Email: horowit@indiana.edu

 

Text: ÒElectrodynamicsÓ by J. D. Jackson

 

Grading is based on homework (40%), a midterm (25%), and a final (35%). The homework (about one assignment per week) is the heart of the class and very important.

 

Grader: Ruizi Li, email: ruizli@indiana.edu, SW340, 5-0293

 

Course description:

(4 cr.) Electricity and Magnetism II: Three hours of lectures and one hour of recitation. Elementary theory of radiation. Plane waves in dielectric and conducting media. Dipole and quadruple radiation from nonrelativistic systems. Further development of radiation theory. Fourier analysis of radiation field and photons. Scattering and diffraction of electromagnetic waves. Special relativity. Covariant formulation of electromagnetic field theory.
P: P506.

 

Outline:

I) Plane waves.

II) Radiating systems.

III) Scattering and diffraction.

IV) Special Relativity.

V) Covriant formulation of electromagnetic theory.

 

The course will cover parts of chapters 7, 9, 10,11, and 12 in Jackson.

 

Course Lectures (Spring 2011)

 

 

Mathematical Methods in the Core Graduate Courses

Physics P507 (Electricity and Magnetism II)

  1. Calculus: Longitudinal and transverse decomposition of vector fields (Coulomb gauge) with differential operators and in momentum space.
  2. Green's Functions: Retarded Green's functions for the wave operator on Rs+1 for s=1,2,3, spherical harmonic - Bessel expansion.
  3. Special Relativity: Lorentz transformations, translations, Lorentz group, parity, time reversal, infinitesimal generators, PoincarŽ group, infinitesimal generators, vectors, tensors, transformation properties and covariance. Covariance of Maxwell's equations.