Lecture 16 - Radiation from accelerated charges

Electromagnetic radiation is the basis of one of our primary physical senses - that of vision. 'Sensing' in Astronomy, however, is entirely dependent on electromagnetic radiation (except for the new window of gravitational radiation that has opened up in recent years) as we study the distant objects from the radiation emitted (or reflected) across the electromagnetic spectrum

After Newton, the greatest discovery in physics was the discovery by Maxwell of the differential equations satisfied by the electric and magnetic fields. These equations predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, as well as the absoluteness of the speed of light. Indeed, the existence of EM waves was a direct consequence of the constancy of the speed of light. In this lecture, I shall describe radiation from accelerated charges in general, and highlight the essential features of radiation under different astrophysical situations. Like Quantum Statistics and Relativity, this lecture is crucial for understanding the later lectures. After all, all the information we derive about celestial bodies is by analyzing the radiation we receive.