The Classical Theory of Fields: Volume 2

Landau's approach to Classical Field Theory demonstrates his ability to be clear, concise, and elegant without drowning out the physics with math. I will say, however, that Landau requires a certain maturity to appreciate his style (same goes for Rudin's books of analysis). I would recommend this title to those with a working knowledge of classical E & M, vector/tensor analysis, and of special relativity. It is also wise to work through the author's Theoretical Mechanics to get a taste of their style. I believe, contrary to many, that this book is appropriate for self study if one is willing to do the work (not only the exercises but following along pencil in hand). I suggest reading a passage and then covering it up and then trying to do the derivations by hand. My only complaint is the quality of print, which has is not the fault of the authors. It is especially annoying at first.

The author builds up a whole theory from almost nothing but common sense. You soon find yourself on page 150 as if you are reading Jane Austin. Landau's exposition is detailed but not boring, he gets to the fundamental facts right away. They define the electromagnetic field as derivatives of a potential. Great insight for people with background in mathematics. I always heard 'The electromagnetic field is the curvature of the connection.' but I didn't quite understand what they meant by that. Now I know.

I have read the old version in French which was very concise and the new one is even more concise. Landau & Lipchitz do not need recommendation as I think they are the best books I know of. I recommend the book of Field Theory to those who already are knowledgeable and who would like to add a high level overview on the field theory (including Relativity).This overview goes in parallel with a deep insight on the various aspects of the theory. (I also very strongly recommend Vol1 : Classical Mechanics of the same authors)

Landau was a master: Concise, insightful, and capable of prodding the student's intellect to solve problems for oneself. As this text elucidates, Electrodynamics cannot be properly understood without the uber-principle of Relativity as foundation; and that is just the beginning. I am still fascinated and a little exhilarated every time I am reminded of the Gauge Invariance associated with the Electrodynamic field. Landau broaches this subject near the very beginning of the text (Paragraph 18) in an elegant way. Because the definitions of the Magnetic field (B) and Electric field (E) contain only the DERIVATIVES of the corresponding potentials rather than the potentials themselves (A, and phi, respectively), it's easily proven that adding constants to the potentials will not affect the field intensities (remember the derivative of a constant = zero!). Here's the Math Example: E Field only: E = -1/c (dA/dt) - grad(phi) But if we change A and phi by adding constants to them, i.e.: A' = A + grad(f) phi' = phi - 1/c(df/dt) Thus, the new field E' = -1/c (dA'/dt) - grad (phi') or, expanding: E' = -1/c (dA/dt) - 1/c (d/dt grad(f)) - grad (phi) + 1/c grad (df/dt) The second and fourth terms on the right cancel, so E' = -1/c (dA/dt) - grad (phi) = E. The field intensity is unchanged despite changing the potentials. Same result obtains when considering the Magnetic field B = curl A Another bombshell is that no matter how one is moving, the total Electrodynamic field does not change. Relative motion will change the measured intensity of the magnetic component B, or perhaps the electric component E depending on how one is moving, but there will always be a resultant compensating change in the one component when there is a change in the other, such that the full field remains unchanged. This represents the essential truth that the Electrodynamic field is a TENSOR, whose physical character is not affected by relative motion; it is invariant in any reference frame. Consider the profound ramifications bound in that concept: A light wave whose existence begins on the surface of some star, potentially traverses 6 or 7 reference frames before it is absorbed in some planets' atmosphere, or perhaps within a leaf. If a measurement is performed on that light wave within any of those reference frames, that measurement will betray the character of said reference frame; so in a sense, perhaps the electromagnetic (electrodynamic!) wave serves as a UNIVERSAL FRAME OF REFERENCE: TRULY INERTIAL. Mirror image of that statement is that if one could rather travel with the wave, as Einstein envisioned, one would "see" the rest of the universe without time, and thus without the effect of MOTION as one traversed these many different reference frames (galaxy, solar system, planetary orbit, rotating planet, etc). An analogous result obtains when considering even mechanical motion and time: Motion through space (x,y,z, or r, theta, phi, or x1, x2, x3) sacrifices motion through time (ct, or x4) such that the interval through space-time (x1, x2, x3, x4) is always unchanged; invariant. This is how the measurement of time becomes relative. Motion through time is contracted to compensate for the motion through space, keeping the interval invariant. Both the Electrodynamic Field and the Gravitational Field are Gauge Fields. Another principle that bent my brain Landau covers in paragraph 95: The equations of the gravitational field also contain the equations for the matter which produces said field. From which the central conclusions may be deduced. Matter is Field Field and matter do not really fill space, like we all intuitively think. Rather, empty space has no objective measurable reality. As Einstein put it: "There is no space empty of field" Thus: Field..... is..... Space

One of the greatest physics texts ever written. Landau immediately jumps into the water with clear descriptions of Einstein's principle of relativity and proceeds from there into momentum, plane waves, diffraction and the rest of modern theory. You cannot find a clearer, easier to read or more principle-driven elaboration of modern physics and fields.

It's so simple to read and just to the point. I honestly had to use the Jackson book, which was not that great, but made a great grade because of the Landau-Lifshitz classic. Then there was the advanced MIT EM book which made so much more sense, but it was all math. Those 3 books alone will give you a pretty adequate understanding of EM, enough to make over 95 out of 100 on every assignment. The Landau, MIT book together are well pretty cool themselves.

Elsevier has made a travesty of this classic work. The good news is that unlike some other volumes in this series (like the completely illegible vol. 3 which I also left a one-star review on), this 2010 digital edition is crisply printed, so some of the other 1-star reviews on this edition complaining about the print quality are no longer applicable. The bad news is, they seem to have gotten it crisp by running some older, barely-legible edition through OCR and then failing to correct typos, so now instead of being hard to read, many equations are crisply *wrong*. The photos show a couple examples. In the footnote on page 18, the subscript indices in the bottom-right equation should be "pklm", not "prlm". Equation 9.3 contains *two* typos: the exponent should be 3/2, not 1/2, and the plus sign before dv/dt should be a multiplication. This material is challenging enough already without having to battle through Elsevier's OCR slop every handful of pages.

I just got this book in and haven't had a chance to read past chapter 1, so if you're looking for a book review see the below comments. However I just wanted to state that the print quality of the new addition is fantastic and is like that of more modern texts. Perhaps the quality of the older texts is sub par, but rest assured that if you buy the newer addition you will get your money's worth.

Excelente curso de física teórica que presenta los conceptos de teoría de campos a un nivel de posgrado, recomendable también para investigadores que deseen profundizar los aspectos descritos en este curso.

In the back of the book it says that it's printed by Amazon Fulfillment in Poland. Which would be fine, if the quality of the print was good. That's not the case though. I was able to compare it with the very same book (i.e. same ISBN) from Bol. In the book from Bol it doesn't say "printed by Amazon Fulfillment" in the back. I didn't find infos where that book was printed, but the print quality is significantly better. Once you have seen the difference you cannot unsee it. So yes, get the book, but not from Amazon.

This is a masterpiece no words can describe the originality and profoundness in every chapter of this text. It is an upper-level graduate text for electromagnetism. The relativity sections are full of new ideas and insights. A very original take on a classic subject area. A must read if you are serious about physics.

Book is good, but pages jumbled. The quality of book, paper, binding is very good. The author is very meticulous in explaining. I think the language or choice of words could be even better. I read 3 pages and then checked for missing or jumbled pages. It was jumbled as another reviewer mentioned....pages 283-298 come after page 322. But I am not gonna return it because I started reading it and am riveted.

Simplemente el mejor libro que explica la relatividad especial. Un Landau es un tesoro. Por mucho aprecio que le tengo al libro, me duele no poder darle 5 estrellas porque la impresión en algunas páginas deja que desear. Hay algunas páginas que no se ven bien (véase las fotos 3 y 4), considero que es normal teniendo en cuenta que la impresión es antigua, ya que es de la edición de Pergamon.