This book addresses the theoretical foundations and the main physical consequences of electromagnetic interaction, generally considered to be one of the four fundamental interactions in nature, in a mathematically rigorous yet straightforward way. The major focus is on the unifying features shared by classical electrodynamics and all other fundamental relativistic classical field theories. The book presents a balanced blend of derivations of phenomenological predictions from first principles on the one hand, and concrete applications on the other. Further, it highlights the internal inconsistencies of classical electrodynamics, and addresses and resolves often-ignored critical issues, such as the dynamics of massless charged particles, the infinite energy of the electromagnetic field, and the limits of the Green’s function method. Presenting a rich, multilayered, and critical exposition on the electromagnetic paradigm underlying the whole Universe, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students in theoretical physics alike.
Author(s): Kurt Lechner
Series: UNITEXT for Physics
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 688
Front Matter ....Pages i-xix
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Foundations of Special Relativity (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 3-26
The Fundamental Equations of Electrodynamics (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 27-84
Variational Methods in Field Theory (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 85-122
Variational Methods in Electrodynamics (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 123-136
Front Matter ....Pages 137-137
Electromagnetic Waves (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 139-181
Generation of Electromagnetic Fields (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 183-218
Liénard-Wiechert Fields (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 219-240
Electromagnetic Radiation (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 241-286
Gravitational Radiation (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 287-311
Radiation in the Ultrarelativistic Limit (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 313-329
Spectral Analysis (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 331-369
Synchrotron Radiation (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 371-386
The Čerenkov Effect (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 387-423
Radiation from an Infinite Wire (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 425-458
Front Matter ....Pages 459-459
Radiation Reaction (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 461-506
Renormalization of the Electromagnetic Energy-Momentum Tensor (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 507-526
The Electromagnetic Field of a Massless Particle (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 527-547
Massive Vector Fields (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 549-578
Electrodynamics of p-Branes (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 579-616
Magnetic Monopoles in Classical Electrodynamics (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 617-644
Magnetic Monopoles in Quantum Mechanics (Kurt Lechner)....Pages 645-678
Back Matter ....Pages 679-688
