General Information

Covers special relativity, Maxwell’s equations, electromagnetic potentials, conservation laws, Green’s functions, electromagnetic waves, dispersion, radiation theory, and scattering. The practical application of appropriate mathematical methods is emphasized. At the level of Classical Electrodynamics by Jackson.

Prerequisites

Topics Covered

Workload

  • We had a pset every two weeks, a 10-minute in-class quiz every two weeks, and a semester term paper. Total time dedicated per week was about 8-12 hours. [FA23]
  • 10-15 hours/week, 2 Quizzes and 1 Final Exam, 1 Final Paper [FA24]

General Advice

  • The class skims over topics from intermediate E&M, so don’t expect to learn those topics thoroughly in this class. [FA23]

Testimonials

  • I enjoyed the class overall. We used Zangwill Modern Electrodynamics as the textbook, which was great for the first half but hard to follow for the 2nd half for the topics of wave guides and field relativity. Rating: 4/5. [FA23]
  • The problem sets were tough with the problems being straight from Jackson. The in-class quizzes and final were easy and you’re given the entire semester for the final project. The lectures were pretty much covered in the readings, but Niemack’s demos and presentations made it worth going to them. [FA24]

Resources

Past Offerings

Semester Professor Median Grade Syllabus
FA23 Michael Niemack N/A PHYS6561_FA23.pdf
FA24 Michael Niemack N/A PHYS6561_FA23.pdf
FA25 Nils Deppe N/A