Theoretical physics. Field theory

This book is the fifth French edition of the famous course written by Landau/Lifchitz and devoted to both the theory of electromagnetic fields and the gravity theory. The talk of the theory of electromagnetic fields is based on special relativity and relates to only the electrodynamics in vacuum and that of pointwise electric charges. On the basis of the fundamental notions of the principle of relativity and of relativistic mechanics, and by using variational principles, the authors develop the fundamental equations of the electromagnetic field, the wave equation and the processes of emission and propagation of light. The theory of gravitational fields, i.e. the general theory of relativity, is exposed in the last five chapters. The fundamentals of the tensor calculus and all that is related to it are progressively introduced just when needed (electromagnetic field tensor, energy-impulse tensor, or curve tensor...). The worldwide reputation of this book is generally allotted to clearness, to the simplicity and the rigorous logic of the demonstrations. (A.C.)