Fundamentals of Electromagnetism

The bibliography on electromagnetism is very rich and it may be necessary to justify our effort in writing a new text. We wanted to have a reference text for the most important topics covered in the course, which would also cover some aspects of interest for the applications of the concepts that the students have learned. This textbook discusses the fundamentals and applications of the electromagnetic theory, emphasizing basic physical aspects rather than mathematics. The text is designed for an intermediate level course, and the topics are ordered in such a way as to makes the links with a previous course on classical mechanics quite natural. In addition, it prepares the reader/student for more advanced courses on quantum mechanics, solid state physics, field theory, and others. Some special topics of current interest, such as numerical methods and superconductivity, are also covered. The book includes a diskette with software for solving problems in electrostatics and magnetostatics. This textbook is a revised and enlarged version of notes written for a one-semester course on electromagnetism. It covers the theory of electromagnetic phenomena in vacuum and in material media. In addition to the classical themes of electrodynamics, the book deals with some related subjects of particular current interest, such as superconductivity and numerical methods. Much emphasis is put on special relativity, in the covariant formulation of electromagnetism, and in the symmetry properties of the theory. The book includes a CD-ROM with didactic software, to solve boundary value problems in electrostatics and magnetostatics. The book is conceived in such a way as to guide the reader from the fundamentals of the theory to its most recent modern applications.