Stony Brook University, Department of Physics and Astronomy

 

CLASSICAL ELECTRODYNAMICS
(PHY 505/506)

Fall 2007/Spring 2008

 

Instructor:                              Konstantin K. Likharev

                                                E-mail: klikharev@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

                                                Office: B-135

                                                Phone: 2-8159

                                                Office hours: Thu 2:00 to 5:00 pm

A. PHY 506 Logistics (Spring 2008)

 

Grader:                                   Tin Yau Pang

                                                E-mail: vvoorr@gmail.com

                                                Office: C-118

                                                Office hours: Wed 1:00 to 2:00 pm (or by e-mail appointment)

                                                                                               

Basic textbook:                       J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. (Wiley, 1999)

 

Also recommended:                L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields, 4th ed. (Pergamon, 1975)

                                                L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, 2nd ed. (Reed, 1984)


Lectures:                                
Approximately 40 lectures per semester

                                                Time: Mon-Wed-Fri 10:40-11:35 am; first lecture: Monday January 28

                                                Room: P-117

           

Homeworks:                           Weekly (with just a few exceptions); submission due in 9 days after the assignment; model solutions published online 7 days after that

                                                Late submission penalty: 10% a day (besides weekends)

 

Exams:                                    One midterm (March 28, lecture time) and a final (May 19, 8:00 – 10:30 am), all in the lecture room.
                                                All exams: books open

 

Grade components:                Homeworks:    25%

                                                Midterm:          25%

                                                Final exam:      50%

 

B. Preliminary Syllabus

(with lecture notes in the pdf format)

PHY 505 (Fall 2007):

 

1. Static Charges in Vacuum (lecture notes)

            Charges in vacuum: the Coulomb Law, electric field. The Gauss Law in integral and differential forms. Electrostatic potential, the Poisson and Laplace equations. Energy of an arbitrary charge distribution.

 

2. Charges and Conductors in Vacuum (lecture notes)

            Conductors: the Debye and Thomas-Fermi lengths, macroscopic boundary conditions. Self- and mutual capacitances, capacitance matrix, energy of an arbitrary system of conductors. Methods of solution of the Laplace and Poisson equations: orthogonal coordinates and conformal mapping, variable separation (for rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates), images (plane and sphere), Green's functions, finite difference methods, finite element methods (the idea only).

 

3. Electrostatics of Dielectrics (lecture notes)

            Multipole expansion, dipole field. Systems of many dipoles, vectors E, P, and D. Dielectrics, ferroelectrics, and paraelectrics. Boundary problems with linear dielectrics. The Clausius-Mossotti (Lorentz-Lorenz) formula. Electrostatic energy of systems with dielectrics.

 

4. DC Current (lecture notes)

            DC current: the continuity equation, the Kirchhoff laws. Physics of metallic conductivity, the Drude and Drude-Sommerfeld models, their relation. The field equation and boundary conditions. The potential distribution hierarchy.

 

5. Magnetostatics (lecture notes)

            The Biot-Savart and Ampere laws, magnetic field, vector potential. Field of thin wires, self- and mutual inductances, inductance matrix, magnetic field energy. The multipole expansion, field and energy of a magnetic dipole. Magnetization of a media, vectors B, M, and H. Magnetics: dia- , para- and ferromagnetism, superconductivity (in the ideal diamagnetic approximation). The boundary conditions, scalar potential of magnetic field. The “magnetic Ohm law”, magnetic resistance, magnetic “charges” in thin hard magnets.

 

6. Time-Dependent Phenomena and the Maxwell Equations (lecture notes)

            Electromagnetic induction: the Faraday law, the quasi-stationary approximation, the skin effect. The quantum picture of superconductivity, the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Displacement currents, the Maxwell hypothesis. The Maxwell equations for fields and potentials. Energy and power flow in electromagnetic field, the Pointing vector.

 

PHY 506 (Spring 2008):

 

7. Plane Waves in Uniform Media (lecture notes)

            Plane waves in vacuum: the wave (Helmholtz) equation, transverse EM waves, their velocity, impedance, polarization, and power. Plane waves in media: the dispersion relation, phase and group velocity. The simplest mechanisms of dispersion, normal and anomal dispersion, plasma frequency, the effect of Ohmic conductivity, the generalized Drude formula, the Kramers-Kronig relations.

 

8. Waves in Restricted Media (lecture notes, with parts of Sec. 5 and 6 still in a crude form)

            Reflection and refraction: the Brewster angle, total internal reflection. Metallic waveguides: TEM waves, speed, impedance, power, and impedance matching. TE and TM waves, dispersion relations, cutoff frequency. Dielectric waveguides, optical fibers. Resonators, the Fabry-Pérot resonator, metallic cavities. Losses, attenuation, the Q factor.

 

9. Radiation, Scattering, Interference, and Diffraction (lecture notes, still in a crude form)

            Retarded potentials. Radiation by nonrelativistic charges: the multipole expansion, spherical waves, dipole radiation, the Larmore formula, short antenna, magnetic-dipole and electric-quadrupole radiation. Scattering: the Born approximation, the high-frequency and low-frequency limits, random scatterers, the Rayleigh formula. Scattering by a few identical objects and by extended bodies, the structure factor. Interference and diffraction. The Huygens principle, the Kirchhoff theorem, the Fraunhofer and Fresnel diffraction limits. The diffraction grating as a Fourier transformer. The Babinet principle.

 

10. Special Relativity (lecture notes in a crude form)

            The experimental background of the special relativity, the Einstein postulates, the Lorentz transform. Kinematics: length contraction, time dilation, velocity transformation, the Doppler effect. 4-vectors, scalar product and norm, 4-velocity. Particle dynamics: relativistic action for a free particle, momentum and energy, 4-momentum. Covariant and contravariant 4-vectors and 4-tensors, the metric tensor. The Maxwell equations in the 4-form: 4-vectors of the current and potential, field tensors, field transformation. Dynamics in the EM field: the dynamics equation, motion in uniform E and B fields. Analytical mechanics of particles in EM field: Lagrangian and Hamiltonian functions, the canonic momentum, adiabatic invariants. Analytical mechanics of the EM field: the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian, field strength tensor.

 

11. Radiation by Relativistic Charges (lecture notes – in a crude form )

            The Liénard-Wiechert potentials, their application to the uniform motion and linear acceleration. Synchrotron radiation: total power, angular distribution, temporal and spectral distribution. Collision energy losses: the Bohr and the Bethe formulas (results only), the Fermi theory of density effects. The Cherenkov radiation: physics, intensity and the angular dependence. Bremsstralung: the low-frequency approximation, other cases (a discussion only). Transition radiation (the idea only). Problems of the classical electrodynamics of point charges: radiation losses, the Abraham-Lorentz force, the 4/3 challenge in the field mass problem.

 

C. Course Materials

(in the pdf format)

PHY 505 (Fall 2007):

 

Initial self-test

 

Homework #1 with solutions

Homework #2 with solutions

Homework #3 with solutions

Homework #4 with solutions

Homework #5 with solutions

Homework #6 with solutions

Homework #7 with solutions

Homework #8 with solutions

Homework #9 with solutions

Homework #10 with solutions

Homework #11 with solutions

 

Midterm #1 with solutions

Midterm #2 with solutions

Final exam with solutions

 

PHY 506 (Spring 2008):

 

Homework #1 with solutions

Homework #2 with solutions

Homework #3 with solutions

Homework #4 with solutions

Homework #5 with solutions

Homework #6 with solutions

Homework #7 with solutions

Homework #8 with solutions

Homework #9 with solutions

Homework #10 with solutions

Homework #11 with solution

 

Midterm exam with solutions

Final exam with solutions

 

D. University-Mandated Statements

Americans with Disabilities Act:

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC (Educational Communications Center) Building, room128, (631) 632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

 

Academic Integrity:

Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty are required to report and suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/ .

 

Critical Incident Management:

Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn.