Michele Maggiore and Graduate Electromagnetism

Graduate-level electromagnetism has always been somewhat of a marmite subject among those who have studied it. A great score of graduates have grown to hate the subject; foregoing any discussion on the teaching ability (which of course does matter) of the lecturer, we arrive at the uncomfortable truth that most textbooks on the subject are far from instructive.

Electromagnetism at a graduate level is made difficult by the superposition of two parts; the first is the introduction of vastly new (and to the student positively alien) material, with the second being the application of previously (mostly) known mathematical techniques in an unfamiliar setting. Most textbooks on the subject tend to be unnaturally skewed towards the prior (as opposed to the latter) of the two, choosing to spend their capital on justifying the existence of the new material introduced at the graduate level.

This is of course no sin, the aim of any graduate course on electromagnetism is to expose the uninitiated to the full scope of the Maxwell equations beyond that given at an undergraduate level. However, students are then left to fill in gaps between derivations, with many examples (or sometimes important results) being left as exercises to the reader. This leaves students without the confidence, intuition or ability to tackle problems in electromagnetism.

The production of this next textbook is a nice juxtaposition to the standard niche which advanced electromagnetism books have fallen into. The author, who has previously produced some very fine textbooks on gravitational waves and quantum field theory, has taken the essence of those texts and improved upon them.

From the onset, the text distinguishes itself through its pedogeological and detailed explanations. Derivations throughout are explained in painstaking detail, to an extent that a student would be able to reproduce the calculations with ease. This is exhibited through the inclusion of a mathematical preliminary section as chapter 1, followed by a review of SI Units.

The text then gently reintroduces the Maxwell equations (and their applications seen at the undergraduate level) before delving deeper into the subject.

A nice change to the usual presentation is the introduction of special relativity and the covariant formalism of electromagnetism in chapters 7 and 8 (roughly halfway through the text), rather than leaving it to the end. This demonstrates the author's commitment and experience with graduate electromagnetism, as students often struggle more so with the classical applications rather than the relativistic interpretation.

As expected from usual graduate texts: scattering of electromagnetic radiation; electromagnetic waves in media; radiation from moving sources; electromagnetic waves in vacuum, and radiation from the sources are all present in this text. The inclusion of modern topics such as Post-Newtonian expansions is very much appreciated, and their clear explanation only bolsters the depth of the presentation.

Moreover, there is an excellent use of the margins; which are used to include useful information such as identities or historical insights which enrich the main body of the text.

The introduction of detailed worked solutions to problems is the hallmark of this text, which supersedes the usual recommended texts for the course.  This eliminates the downfall of previous texts of not teaching the student how to solve the problems they may encounter. This hands-on approach is rare at the graduate level, but Michele Maggiore’s pragmatism has seen it to be an excellent addition.

Furthermore, this book is welcome at a time when the non-relativistic elements of the subject (with the exclusion of graduate schools within North America) are often being neglected from the standard graduate education. Of course, this is often to the chargrill of the lecturers rather than the students, nevertheless, the production of this text has empowered the student to self-study the material.  This is the greatest distinction a textbook can hope to achieve.

 

A Modern Introduction to Classical Electrodynamics By Michele Maggiore

ISBN:9780192867438

Price: £34.99

Available from: A Modern Introduction to Classical Electrodynamics - Paperback - Michele Maggiore - Oxford University Press (oup.com)

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