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Physics 7312

Electromagnetic Theory II - Fall 2025

Course Information

Lecturer: Professor Randall J. Scalise
Lecture meeting times and place: TTh 11am-12:30pm in room 60 Fondren Science Building
Office hours: after lecture in room 107 Fondren Science and by appointment.
Contact:
- Call or leave a message at 768-2504, or
- Leave a note in the Physics Department Office - 102 Fondren Science, or
- send me e-mail: <scalise@smu.edu>
Program Objective: Students will apply their knowledge of Electromagnetism in solving physics problems.
Midterm Exam - Monday 6 October 2025 online during class time, open book and notes.
Final Exam - Saturday 13 December 2025 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM, online, open book and notes.
Text:
- Classical Electrodynamics by Jackson (2nd or 3rd edition)
Lecture Notes
- Differential Forms I
- Differential Forms II
- PHYS 7311 notes
- Lecture 23
- Lecture 24
- Lecture 25
- Lecture 26, The Big Misconception About Electricity Veritasium; How Electricity Actually Works
- The electric field inside a conducting wire is uniform; for a proof see Griffiths pp. 296-301 and the magnetic field inside and outside the wire is a freshman problem solved with Ampere's law. The electric field outside the wire is very complicated. See Griffiths problem 7.43.
- Lecture 27, Hidden Momentum - notes for density matrix
- Lecture 28, Zypman's E field of charged ring
- Lecture 29, Density Matrix
- Lecture 30
- So you thought everything about electricity and magnetism was known...
  - Black holes take light for a spin
  - How to spot a spinning black hole
  - Twisted Light Could Enable Black Hole Detection
  - Twisting of light around rotating black holes
- Lecture 31
- Lecture 32
- Lecture 33
  - Green Functions
  - Optical Theorm
  - Kramers-Kronig Relation
- Diffraction
  - Single-slit Diffraction, PHYS 1304 notes
  - Diffraction from a Rectangular Aperture
  - Diffraction from a Circular Aperture
- Lecture 34
- Lecture 35
  - Longitudinal and Transverse Wave Motion
- Lecture 36
- Lecture 37
- Lecture 38
- Lecture 39
- Lecture 40
- Lecture 41
  - Terrell rotation, video
  - The Clock Hypothesis 1
  - The Clock Hypothesis 2
  - On the Galilean non-invariance of classical electromagnetism
- Lecture 42
- Lecture 43
- Lecture 44
- Lecture 45
  - Bremsstrahlung and Synchrotron Radiation differential power Mathematica notebook
- Lecture 46
  - Do uniformly accelerated charges radiate?
    - Rick Bradford
    - Kirk McDonald
    - See also Sidney Coleman's relativity lectures
- Lecture 47
  - Cherenkov radiation
  - Sonic boom
- Ponderomotive force and Wikipedia entry
Grading:
- Homework 60%
- Midterm Exam 20%
- Final Exam 20%
Syllabus
Homework Assignments Due dates are strictly enforced. 50% if late; 0% once the solutions are posted. You may work together, but the work that you turn in should be unique. Identical work will receive a grade that is divided among all parties. It is possible to find answers to some homework solutions on the internet; do not do this. The point, after all, is not to fool me into thinking that you have learned physics, but rather actually to learn some physics.
- Assignment #1: PDF due Friday 5 September 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- Assignment #2: PDF due Friday 12 September 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- Assignment #3: PDF due Friday 19 September 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- Assignment #4: PDF due Friday 26 September 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- No homework due on Friday 3 October 2025 because of the midterm on Monday 6 October 2025
- Assignment #5: PDF due Friday 10 October 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- Assignment #6: PDF due Friday 17 October 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- No homework due on Friday 24 October 2025 because of Fall Break
- Assignment #7: PDF due Friday 31 October 2025 at 11:59:59pm
- Assignment #8: PDF due Friday 7 November 2025 at 11:59:59pm
  
  Mathematica code for multipoles, See also Multipole Expansion
- Assignment #9: PDF due
- Assignment #10: PDF due
- Assignment #11: PDF due
- Assignment #12: PDF due
Homework solutions
Recommended Reading:
- Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths
- Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Phenomena by Lorrain and Corson
- Robert G. Brown's notes
- Electromagnetic Fields and Energy by Herman A. Haus and James R. Melcher
- Kirk McDonald's Examples
- Classical Electrodynamics part II by Robert G. Brown
Official University Calendar
SMU Required Syllabus Statements

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