PRELIMINARY LECTURE SCHEDULE
1. February 11
General course information and syllabus.
I. Relativistic kinematics
2. February 13: Chapters 1.1.1-1.1.4
The principles of special relativity: historical overview, Einstein's
postulates, intervals, light cone, and proper time.
3. February 16
The Lorentz transformation.
4. February 18
4-vectors and 4-tensors.
5. February 20
The 4-tensor electromagnetic field and transformation of
electromagnetic field.
Note: time and place change due to instructor's travel (10.10-11.00).
6. February 23
Quiz
February 25 and 27 lectures are rescheduled due to instructor's travel.
There will be one extra lecture for the next two weeks, time will be announced.
II. Relativistic mechanics and field theory
7. March 1
Relativistic mechanics and field theory: an introduction.
8. March 3
Relativistic mechanics and field theory: charged particle in a vector potential.
9. March 5
The Maxwell equations. Proca mass term.
10. Rescheduled lecture #1:
Invariance and conservation laws.
11. March 8
Midterm #1 (Topics I &II)
12. March 10
Review of Midterm #1.
III. Waveguides, resonant cavities, and optical fibers
13. March 12
Waveguides
14. Rescheduled lecture #2:
Waveguides: problems & solutions
15. March 15
Resonant cavities, power loss in a cavity; Q of a cavity.
Earth and ionosphere as a resonant cavity: Schumann resonances.
16. March 17
Optical fibers
17. March 19
Optical fibers: applications.
March 20 - March 28: Spring break
IV. Diffraction
18. March 29
Geometrical optics
19. March 31
Gaussian optics
20. April 2
Special topic: How do lasers work?
21. April 5
Laser resonators and mode spacing
22. April 7
Diffraction
23. April 9
Diffraction continued
24. April 12
Problems & solutions
25. April 14
Midterm # 2 (Topics III & IV)
26. April 16
Review of Midterm #2.
V. Radiation by relativistic particles
27. April 19
Fourier decomposition of the fields. Lienard-Wiechert fields.
28. April 21
Multipole radiation
29. April 23
Spectral and angular distributions of radiation form a point charge.
30. April 26
Bremsstrahlung
31. April 28
Thomson scattering
32. April 30
Synchrotron radiation
33. May 3
Undulator radiation
34. May 5
Coherent radiative processes
35. May 7
Cherenkov radiation
36. May 10
Open topic
37. May 12
Fundamental particles in classical electrodynamics
38. May 14
Fundamental particles in classical electrodynamics continued
39. May 17
Presentation of the research projects
40. May 19
Presentation of the research projects