Special Relativity and Electromagnetism

This subject introduces Einstein’s Special Principle of Relativity and develops the fundamental principles of electromagnetism and Maxwell’s equations in differential form. Special relativity topics include the foundations of special relativity, spacetime invariance, simultaneity, and Minkowski diagrams, relativistic kinematics, the Doppler effect, relativistic dynamics, and nuclear reactions. Electromagnetism topics include the electric field (e.g. Gauss’s law in integral and differential form, scalar potential and gradient, Poisson and Laplace equations), the magnetic field (e.g. Ampere’s law in integral and differential forms), Maxwell’s equations in vacuum (integral and differential forms), Maxwell’s equations in matter (polarization, electric displacement, magnetic vector potential), time-varying electric and magnetic fields (Maxwell’s equations in general form, wave equations for E and B, plane electromagnetic wave, Poynting vector). The presentation concludes with the relativistic formulation of the Lorentz force law.