Prefaces

EXCERPTS FROM THE PREFACES TO THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS

THIS book is devoted to the presentation of the theory of the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, i.e. electrodynamics and general relativity. A complete, logically connected theory of the electromagnetic field includes the special theory of relativity, so the latter has been taken as the basis of the presentation. As the starting point of the derivation of the fundamental relations we take the variational principles, which make possible the attainment of maximum generality, unity and simplicity of presentation.

In accordance with the overall plan of our Course of Theoretical Physics (of which this book is a part), we have not considered questions concerning the electrodynamics of continuous media, but restricted the discussion to “microscopic electrodynamics”—the electrodynamics of point charges in vacuo.

The reader is assumed to be familiar with electromagnetic phenomena as discussed in general physics courses. A knowledge of vector analysis is also necessary. The reader is not assumed to have any previous knowledge of tensor analysis, which is presented in parallel with the development of the theory of gravitational fields.

Moscow, December 1939

Moscow, June 1947

L. LANDAU, E. LIFSHITZ

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH ENGLISH EDITION

THE first edition of this book appeared more than thirty years ago. In the course of reissues over these decades the book has been revised and expanded; its volume has almost doubled since the first edition. But at no time has there been any need to change the method proposed by Landau for developing the theory, or his style of presentation, whose main feature was a striving for clarity and simplicity. I have made every effort to preserve this style in the revisions that I have had to make on my own.

As compared with the preceding edition, the first nine chapters, devoted to electrodynamics, have remained almost without changes. The chapters concerning the theory of the gravitational field have been revised and expanded. The material in these chapters has increased from edition to edition, and it was finally necessary to redistribute and rearrange it.

I should like to express here my deep gratitude to all of my helpers in this work—too many to be enumerated—who, by their comments and advice, helped me to eliminate errors and introduce improvements. Without their advice, without the willingness to help which has met all my requests, the work to continue the editions of this course would have been much more difficult. A special debt of gratitude is due to L. P. Pitaevskii, with whom I have constantly discussed all the vexing questions.

The English translation of the book was done from the last Russian edition, which appeared in 1973. No further changes in the book have been made. The 1994 corrected reprint includes the changes made by E. M. Lifshitz in the Seventh Russian Edition published in 1987.

I should also like to use this occasion to sincerely thank Prof. Hamermesh, who has translated this book in all its editions, starting with the first English edition in 1951. The success of this book among English-speaking readers is to a large extent the result of his labour and careful attention.

E. M. LIFSHITZ

EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH RUSSIAN EDITION

E. M. Lifshitz began to prepare a new edition of Teoria Polia in 1985 and continued his work on it even in hospital during the period of his last illness. The changes that he proposed are made in the present edition. Of these we should mention some revision of the proof of the law of conservation of angular momentum in relativistic mechanics, and also a more detailed discussion of the question of symmetry of the Christoffel symbols in the theory of gravitation. The sign has been changed in the definition of the electromagnetic field stress tensor. (In the present edition this tensor was defined differently than in the other volumes of the Course.)

June 1987

L. P. PITAEVSKII