PY 785

Advanced Electricity and Magnetism I

Section: 001

Course Description

This is the first semester of a two-semester sequence focusing on electrostatics. Topics include establishing the physical basis of Maxwell's Equations; image-charge, series-expansion, and Green-function methods for determining electrostatic potentials and solving boundary-condition problems in one, two, and three dimensions (mathematics includes Bessel functions and spherical harmonics); dielectric response theory in linear and nonlinear limits; Cauchy theorem, causality, Kramers-Kronig relations, and sum rules; Green functions and response theory in the time domain; inhomogeneous materials and plasmonics; magnetostatics. The final exam is the Department qualifying exam for electricity and magnetism.