Book Review

Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics
Charles A. Brau
Oxford University Press, New York, 2004 594 pp.
ISBN 0-19-514665-4

Reviewed by F. Javier Gonzalez

see all book reviews

Electrodynamics is one of the core required courses for any degree in physics. It also forms the foundation of a wide variety of research areas. For these reasons, many books cover this subject. In Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics, Charles A. Brau gathers valuable information from such classic texts as Max Born and Emil Wolf’s Principles of Optics, Joseph W. Goodman’s Introduction to Fourier Optics, and L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz’s The Classical Theory of Fields, and packages it all into one very readable volume.

Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics starts with a lengthy prologue that covers electrostatics, magnetostatics, and Maxwell’s equations, among other topics. This prologue seems a bit redundant because the book itself covers time-independent electromagnetic fields and electromagnetic waves in Chapters 3 and 4.According to the preface, Brau’s arrangement of the text was influenced by that of Landau and Lifshitz, starting with a chapter on relativistic kinematics and another on relativistic mechanics and field theory.

Chapter 5, Fourier Techniques and Virtual Quanta, explains the mathematical importance of the wave concept and presents the mathematical tools used to describe wave phenomena. Further chapters cover macroscopic materials; linear, dispersive media; nonlinear optics; diffraction, from geometrical optics and Gaussian optics to lasers and diffraction; and radiation by relativistic particles. The book ends with a chapter on fundamental particles in classical electrodynamics. The main contribution of this book to the already huge list of books in electrodynamics is the inclusion of sections on nonlinear optics and lasers, topics that are rarely covered in a classical electrodynamics book. The book also provides a number of problems that should prove valuable both to the student learning the subject and to the instructor teaching it. Because this book follows a somewhat unorthodox way of presenting the material (similar to that of Landau and Lifshitz), some professors might find it hard to adopt, especially those who teach from books such as John David Jackson’s Classical Electrodynamics, which begins with electrostatics and magnetostatics and leaves relativistic dynamics to later sections.

Nevertheless, Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics will make a great reference for the researcher and a source of interesting problems for the professor teaching a graduate course in electrodynamics. It should also be useful for the student who wants to go beyond the regular graduate electrodynamics course.

F. Javier Gonzalez is an assistant professor of physics at the Research Institute of Optical Communications in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He holds patents and has published in the areas of infrared detectors and infrared focal-plane arrays.