Undergraduate Course: Classical Electrodynamics (PHYS11045)
Course Outline
| School | School of Physics and Astronomy |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | A course on the Maxwell equations, their Lorentz invariance, covariant formulation, and gauge invariance. Applications included classical radiation from time dependent charges and currents, and in particular accelerating charges. |
| Course description |
* Electrodynamics: Maxwell's equations, charge, energy and momentum conservation, the electromagnetic potentials, electromagnetic radiation and its generation, electric and magnetic dipole radiation.
* Relativity: Lorentz transformations, 4-vectors, relativistic dynamics, the covariant formulation of Maxwell's equations, gauge invariance, magnetism as a relativistic phenomenon, the stress-energy tensor.
* Accelerating charges: covariant Green's functions, the Lienard-Wiechert potential, their associated fields, synchotron radiation, Larmor formula and the Abraham-Lorentz equation.
* Action principles: for point particles, scalar fields, vector fields, Noether's theorem, charge and energy-momentum conservation, the Yukawa potential, radiation vs matter.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 22,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 11,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
61 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Degree Examination, 100% |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the relativistic formulation of Maxwell's equations.
- Use the Lorentz transformation to transform fields and sources from one inertial frame to another.
- Appreciate the causal structure of electrodynamics.
- Derive detailed expressions for the nature of electromagnetic power emitted by various sources.
- Apply Maxwell's equations to solve unseen problems in classical electrodynamics.
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Reading List
| D.J. Griths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall 1999. |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Donal O'Connell
Tel:
Email: Donal.O'Connell@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Yuhua Lei
Tel: (0131 6) 517067
Email: yuhua.lei@ed.ac.uk |
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