Classical Electrodynamics has credit value 6 and it is taught in the first semester of the third year of the Laurea. Its main goal is to develop the covariant formalism for electrodynamics and to illustrate some of its physical applications, with particular emphasis on radiation phenomena.
Lectures are taught in italian. Learning material is available on AulaWeb.
The teaching aims to introduce the covariant formalism for electrodynamics and develop its main physical applications, with special emphasis on purely relativistic phenomena, such as radiation. After introducing the functional method for a generic relativistic field theory, the general solution of Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic fields generated by a moving charge, emitted radiation, development in multipoles, spectral analysis of radiation, and the effects of radiation on the motion of emitting particles will be studied.
Electromagnetic laws are left invariant by the Lorentz transformations of Special Relativity. The teaching unit will introduce the covariant formalism which makes this invariant manifest. The same formalism also simplifies the solution of several physical problems, and in particular of those that follow directly from the relativistic nature of the theory, like radiation. Some of the main phenomenological consequences of electrodynamics (Larmor's law, Thomson scattering, synchrotron and Cerenkov radiation, radiation reaction) will be illustrated, alongside with the conceptual and methodological tools needed to study general relativistic field theories (lagrangian formalism, Noether's theorem, Cauchy problem, Green's function method).
The students will develop the skills needed to apply the covariant formalism to the study of electromagnetic phenomena and will acquire the conceptual basis of radiation and its main physical consequences.
Classical Electromagnetism and basic Special Relativity.
Traditional: chalk and blackboard. Home assignments will be handed out weekly and their solution will be verified during the final oral exam.
Ricevimento: Students can request an appointment by email: stefano.giusto@ge.infn.it
STEFANO GIUSTO (President)
SIMONE MARZANI
CAMILLO IMBIMBO (Substitute)
Check the calendar at
https://corsi.unige.it/corsi/9012/studenti-orario
Oral exam. During the exam the student will also be asked to discuss the solution of one of the home assignments.
A list of problems will be handed out weekly. To verify that students are able to apply the techniques of the covariant formalism to problem solving, students will be asked to present the solution of one of the home assignments during the oral exam. The exam also aims at assessing the knowledge and comprehension of the results derived in class.
Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Sergio Di Domizio (sergio.didomizio@unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.
