UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-CLEAR LAKE
SYLLABUS – Spring 2015
PHYS 5331 Electrodynamics
TR 4:00-5:20 PM Bayou 1104
PHYS 5311 Recitation for Electrodynamics
W 4:00-4:50 PM Bayou 2104
Co-requisite requirement: PHYS 5331 and 5311 must be taken together. If you drop one of these courses during the semester you must also drop the other. If at the end of the semester your name does not appear on the rosters for both courses, you will receive a grade of F in the course for which you are still registered.
INSTRUCTOR: David Garrison
OFFICE: BAYOU 3531-2
EMAIL: garrison@uhcl.edu
TELEPHONE: 281-283-3796
Course Description: Dynamics of Electric and magnetic fields, Maxwell’s equations, electromagnetic radiation, Special Relativity and wave guides.
Prerequisites: PHYS 4331: Principles of Electromagnetism or equivalent.
Textbook: Classical Electrodynamics (3rd Ed), John David Jackson
Policies:
1. Office Hours: TR 2:00-4:00 pm and by appointment
2. Measurements: Two in-class exams & take-home problem sets
Date Percent
Problem Sets 30
Mid-term Mar 12 30
Final May 7 40
3. Grading: The grade boundaries will be (whichever is lower):
A – 85%
B – 70%
C – 55%
D – 40%
F – Below 40%
Refined letter grade system, including “+” or “-“, will be used
4. Honesty Code: I will be honest in all my academic activities and will not tolerate dishonesty.
5. Make-ups: Make-up exams are not recommended. If you know ahead of time that you will be unable to attend an exam, please let me know in advance so that we can make other arrangements.
6. Disability Accommodation Statement: If you are certified as disabled and are entitled to accommodation under the ADA Act., sec 503, please see the instructor as soon as possible. If you are not currently certified and believe that you may qualify, please contact the Coordinator of Disabled Services, at 283-2627, in Health and Disability Services.
7. Learning Outcomes:
Upon Completion of this course, students will be able to:
· Solve Problems involving EM Waves and Wave Guides
· Solve Problems involving Relativistic Particles
· Solve Problems involving Tensors
· Solve Problems involving Lagrangians in EM and Special Relativity
· Solve Problems involving Radiation and Radiative Processes
· Solve Problems involving Scattering of EM waves and charged particles
· Solve Problems involving Simple Plasmas
|
Week |
Topic |
Chapter(s) |
|
1-2 |
Review of Statics
and Potentials and Boundary-Value Problems |
J1, 2 ,3, 5 |
|
3 |
Multipoles |
J4 |
|
4-5 |
Dynamic Fields and
Electromagnetic Waves |
J6, 7 |
|
6-7 |
Electromagnetic
Waves and Waveguides |
J7, 8 |
|
8 |
Midterm Exam |
|
|
9 |
Spring Break |
|
|
10-11 |
Tensors and
Relativity |
J11 |
|
12 |
Dynamics of
Particles and Lagrangians |
J12 |
|
13 |
Radiation and
Radiating Systems |
J9 |
|
14 |
Scattering and
Diffraction |
J10 |
|
15 |
Bremsstrahlung |
J13, 14 |
|
16 |
Final Exam |
|
Electrodynamics
About 89% of Ph.D. level Physics departments require at least one semester of Electrodynamics. This course is based partially on the work of Maxwell in the mid 19th Century but also includes topics from 20th Century research. The mathematics used in this course primarily consists of vector calculus, differential equations, Green’s functions, Fourier transforms, complex variables, special functions and tensors so a good understanding of mathematical methods is essential here. The most popular textbook used in this class is the one originally written by J.D. Jackson in 1962. Topics typically include:
Electrodynamics
§ Review
· Fields in terms of Potentials
· Multipole expansions
· Cylindrical waveguides and fiber optics
· Gauge invariance
· Continuous groups
§ Relativity
· Postulates
· Lorentz transformations from postulates
· General time, length, velocity,
acceleration transformations
· Images of objects in relativistic motion
· Doppler shift - headlight effect
· Twin paradox
· 4-vector notation, 4-space, 4-velocity,
4-momentum, 4-potential, etc.
§ Covariant Notation
· Tensor algebra
· Differential Forms, transformations
· Covariant 4-vectors, field tensor
· Covariant Maxwell equations
· Covariant Stress Tensor
· Lorentz Group
· Spin, angular momentum, Thomas precession
§ Lagrangian Formulation
· Classical EM Field
· Charged particle
· Gauge transformation
· Phase space
§ Radiation
· Scalar spherical harmonics, spherical
eigenfunctions, and operators
· Expansion of a vector field in vector spherical
harmonics
· Generalized radiation problem, multipole
expansion
· Multipole connection to the source
geometry
· Covariant Green's function
· Radiation and coherence
§ Bremsstrahlung
· Lienard-Wiechart Potentials
· Radiation from an accelerated charge
· Interpretation in theorems of causality
· Radiation in collisions
· Cherenkov radiation
· Synchrotron radiation
· Free electron lasers
· Scattering
· Integral formulation
· Perturbation series and Green's function
· Rutherford scattering
· Virtual photon and Weizsacker-Williams
formulation
· Thomson scattering
· Diffraction - Scalar and Vector
· Plasma
· Debye shielding
· Guiding center theory - Single particle
motion
· Plasma oscillations
· Magnetohydrodynamic waves
Textbooks typically used for graduate-level Electrodynamics are:
1) Classical Electrodynamics by Jackson
2) Classical Theory of Fields by Lifshitz and Landau
3) Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics by Brau
4) Notes for a Course on Classical Electrodynamics by Goldstein
5) Electrodynamics of Continuous Media by Lifshitz, Landau and Pitaevskii
6) Electromagnetism by Pollack and Stump
7) Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths
8) Classical Electromagnetic Theory by Vanderlinde
9) Classical Electrodynamics by Greiner