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A Physicist’s View of Matter and Mind, by Chandre Dharma-wardana

Many students of physics will associate graduate classical electrodynamics with Jackson’s famous textbook and remember the corresponding lecture as the one in which they learned to calculate multidimensional integrals and solve linear partial differential equations. Although the development of such computational skills is certainly an essential part of the curriculum, the subject of classical electrodynamics has in fact much more to offer. Zangwill’s Modern Electrodynamics presents a stimulating fresh look at this traditional topic and has the potential to become a new classic. Following most other textbooks, Zangwill develops the theory from electrostatics in vacuum and matter over magnetostatics to dynamical fields and electromagnetic waves in vacuum and matter. The text is almost 1000 pages long, and this is because all subjects are treated in a very detailed and thorough way. In particular the chapters on magnetic matter, the scattering problem and the propagation of electromagnetic waves in vacuum, matter and waveguides go far beyond an introduction. I have seen much of this material for the first time in an introductory textbook. What is so ‘modern’ about Zangwill’s book? These are mainly the applications of the electrodynamical theory, and the list of fascinating examples is long. Among the topics, I found most inspiring are: potentials as natural functions, the Coulomb blockade during the charging of quantum dots, the electrostatics of ion channels, parity violation and the anapole moment of atomic nuclei, the electron microscope, the motion of magnetic bacteria, the magnetic charge vs. circulating current interpretation for the dipole moment of the proton, the Abraham-Minkowski controversy over the correct formula for the electrodynamic force density in matter, the application of the hairy ball theorem to spherical electromagnetic waves, optical tweezers, negative index of refraction materials, reflection of radio waves by the ionosphere, whistlers, the telegraph equation, chaotic quantum billiards in resonant cavities, whispering gallery modes, the classical Zeeman effect, the electric field of a pulsar and the generation and properties of Cherenkov radiation. The book is wonderfully written, typeset and illustrated. It contains lots of historical anecdotes and references to research papers. Each chapter ends with a long list of problems, and a detailed index helps to navigate in the book. A list of known errors is available online. The only things I did not like was the use of SI units and the ‘ict’ metric in the chapter on special relativity, both of which can be considered a matter of taste. All in all, this book provides an extensive, thorough and motivating introduction to nearly all aspects of classical electrodynamics and can be recommended for students and lecturers alike.