Classical Field Theory
USOSThis is the madatory course "Classical Field Theory" for the Master in Theoretical Physics at the University of Wrocław. It is tailored towards first year master students who are familiar with
- classical mechanics,
- classical electrodynamics,
- differential calculus, and
- linear algebra
There are many good books on the subject, four that I like are
- Torre: Introduction to Classical Field Theory,
- Arodź, Hadasz: Lectures on Classical and Quantum Theory of Fields,
- Jackson: Classical Electrodynamics, and
- Landau, Lifshitz: The Classical Theory of Fields.
There will be 2 hours of lectures and 2 hours of tutorials each week. Please keep in mind that attendance is mandatory and will be checked. Exercises will be posted here at least a week before the lab they are discussed in. Please keep in mind that active participation in the labs and especially submitting the solution to the posed problems is important to pass the course. M.Sc. Achilleas Gitsis will be the assistant for this course. Please fell free to contact him () or me if you have any questions. For information about credits points, please refer to the syllabus or contact me directly.
Location: We are in the lecture room 445 for both, the lectures and the tutorials.
Important: Students will be assigned to exercise problems by the system described here at the Friday, 9:00 pm, before the tutorial. Please indicate your preferences by then.
Exam: We will have a written exam at the end of the semester. You need to have more than 50% of the points from the exercises assigned to you to qualify for the exam. You can check your points here on the website, or, if you are in doubt, with me or Achilleas.
Lectures
- Introduction, with sine-Gordon model as the first field theoryLecture08.10.2025 12:15Tutorial15.10.2025 12:15, exercise
- Hamiltonian and Lagrangian analysisLecture08.10.2025 14:15Tutorial22.10.2025 12:15, exercise
- Linear chain: Fourier transformation and HamiltonianLecture22.10.2025 12:15Tutorial29.10.2025 15:15, exercise
- Linear chain: Initial value problem and Poisson bracketsLecture29.10.2025 13:15
- Minkowski space and the light coneLecture05.11.2025 13:15
- Schwarz and triangle inequalitiesLecture12.11.2025 13:15
- Four-velocity and four-accelerationLecture19.11.2025 13:15
- Reference frames and relativistic motionLecture03.12.2025 13:15
- Pseudo-Euclidean spaceLecture10.12.2025 13:15
- Unitary representation of the Poincare groupLecture17.12.2025 13:15
- Pauli-Lubański vector and the relativistic particle actionLecture07.01.2026 13:15
- ElectrodynamicsLecture14.01.2026 13:15
- Equations of motionLecture21.01.2026 13:15
- Lagrangian of real scalar fieldLecture28.01.2026 13:15
- RevisionLecture04.02.2026 13:15, revision
Achilles prepared notes that summarize the most important insights of this semester. Perhaps they are useful in preparing for the exam.
