From Electrostatics to Optics: A Concise Electrodynamics Course (Theoretical and Mathematical Physics) - Hardcover

Scharf, Gunter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3540576827 ISBN 13: 9783540576822

Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K, 1994

Synopsis

After a historical introduction and mathematical preliminaries the book turns to electrostatics in vacuum, whereby Maxwells equations are not postulated as axioms, but deduced from electrostatics plus Lorentz invariance. These general ideas are then illustrated by many applications, radiation phenomena in particular. Chapter 4 is devoted to the completely different subject of phenomenological electrodynamics of matter, with the equations derived by spatial averaging, assuming a classical model for the atomic structure of matter. The chapter on optics is not treated as an independent field, but rather an application of Chapter 4, where significant themes such as wave optics, light scattering, geometrical optics, diffraction theory, and the laser are discussed. Finally, an epilogue relates the classical theory to modern quantum electrodynamics.

About this title

Synopsis

This is a concise and modern course on classical electrodynamics and optics. After a historical introduction and mathematical preliminaries the book begins with electrostatics in vacuum. Maxwell's equations are not postulated as axioms, but deduced from electrostatics plus Lorentz invariance. General ideas are illustrated by applications; in particular, radiation phenomena. Chapter 4 is devoted to the completely different subject of the phenomenological electrodynamics of matter. The phenomenological equations are derived by spatial averaging, assuming a classical model for the atomic structure of matter. Wave and geometrical optics, light scattering, diffraction theory, and the laser are also discussed. An epilogue relates the classical theory to quantum electrodynamics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540576827
• ISBN 13: 9783540576822
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 263