Physics 611: Introduction to Mathematical Physics

Spring 2014

Lectures:  Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:50 a.m. in Small 126

Instructor: Irina Novikova

Office: Small 251
E-mail: ixnovi[at]wm.edu 
Office hours: by appointment
Telephone: (757) 221-3693

Web-site: http://www.physics.wm.edu/~inovikova/phys611/phys611.html

 

Required text: J.D. Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics 3rd Ed., Wiley.

Homework:  5 assignments due selected Tuesdays (see schedule)

Grading:

Homework

40%

Midterm presentation

30%

Final exam

30%

Tentative course schedule

Descriptions of Electromagnetic Radiation, Maxwell Equations (Chapter 6)

Vector and scalar potentials, gauge transformations, Poynting theorem  

Plane electromagnetic waves and wave propagation (Chapter 7)

Plane wave and its polarization, laws of reflection and refraction, dispersion and group velocity, Kramers-Kronig relationships

Gaussian beams

Paraxial approximation, beam propagation, higher order modes

Waveguides and cavities (Chapter 8)

Eigenmodes of a waveguides, resonant cavities, optical fibers

Radiation of e-m waves (Chapter 9)

Radiation of a moving charges, multipole expansion

Scattering and diffraction (Chapter 10)

Types of scattering, diffraction theory.