Applications of Electrodynamics in Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics PDF

Preface

This book, revised from the third Russian edition, is a specially written text based on a lecture course for students in the Physics and Astrophysics Department of the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute.

It is not intended as a systematic course book, but rather as a supplementary text to the standard course books on theoretical physics and astrophysics, such as the famous 8 volume course written by L. Landau and E. Lifshits. As such, it addresses selected problems in theoretical physics and astrophysics, most of which are to a greater or lesser extent associated with electrodynamics.

Additions since the publication of the first edition include a special chapter on the theory of transition radiation and transition scattering and also a discussion of the problem of toroidal dipole moments, which as far as the author knows, is not even mentioned in any university textbook. Also, misprints have been corrected and the reference list altered: some substitutions and many additions have been made. It should be noted that although the reference list is quite extensive and updated to 1989, it is not exhaustive and is intended as an aid to orient the reader and aimed at providing the required minimum of initial information on literature in the field. Therefore, some of the papers quoted are not definitive and appear in the list only because they were at hand, while some pioneering studies, significant reviews and monographs, are not listed. Any other approach would hardly be feasible since the range of problems discussed in the book is fairly large and the number of publications in these fields is enormous. A more complete reference list can now be provided only in reviews or monographs covering a narrow field or in special bibliographical or historical works.

The author hopes that this book will prove useful for graduate students and for postdoctoral and research workers, and is grateful to all those who read the manuscripts of this book and made helpful suggestions to improve the text.

 Author: David Ginsburg