Electromagnetic Theory I

Graduate-level classical electrodynamics built around Jackson — the goal is to develop the mathematical fluency to treat E&M as a boundary-value problem field theory rather than a collection of formulas from undergrad physics. Most of your time goes into wrestling with hard problem sets (separation of variables, Green's functions, multipole expansions, eventually Maxwell's equations in matter), with two midterms and a final that are essentially harder versions of the same. It's the standard first-year PhD core that every theorist and experimentalist is expected to survive, and the techniques you grind out here — especially the Green-function and special-function machinery — carry directly into PHYS 542, quantum field theory, and pretty much any later course involving wave phenomena.