Electrodynamics

Contents: 1. The basics of Maxwell’s electrodynamics. 2. Relativistic electrodynamics. 3. Static fields. Solution of the wave equation, radiation field. 4. Properties of radiation in isotropic media. 5. The Lorentz-Dirac equation scattering, and absorption of electromagnetic field. 6. Motion of charged particles in electromagnetic field. Systems of interacting charges. 7. Continuous media in electric field. 8. Electric current magnetic field in continuous media. 9. Alternating electromagnetic field in continuous media.

With the current high level of instruction in the general physics course the students starting their study of electrodynamics have a considerable knowledge of the facts that are generalized in the Maxwell equations. This has made it possible for us to proceed from the equations and set the objective of showing how different problems in electrodynamics follow from the equations when the properties of the material media are taken into account. The approach via the Maxwell equations enables the reader to come closer to formulating in the most direct and modern way quite a number of problems currently under intensive discussion in scientific literature. Of these, this book considers some aspects of magneto hydrodynamics, the motion of charged particles in a non uniform electromagnetic field, and the basis for the phenomenological equations of superconductivity. We have also included the concept of spatial dispersion and stated the basic ideas of nonlinear optics. Understandably, the presentation of these topics cannot claim to be complete.

The Appendices contain the basic facts about vector and tensor analyses, which are used throughout the book, and also some properties of the Dirac delta function are given.