This volume is closely connected with "Electrodynamics/' Vol. Ill of my lectures. Not only the formalism of Maxwell's equations but also their intrinsic
character, the invariance with respect to the group of Lorentz transformations,
is adopted from Vol. Ill and is assumed to be known.
Chapter I is entitled "Reflection and Refraction of Light." Only the
(never realizable) ideal case of the monochromatic plane wave which is
necessarily completely (and, in general, elliptically) polarized is treated in
this chapter. Reflection and refraction are regarded throughout as boundary
value problems associated with a single boundary surface or (in the case of the
plate) with two boundary surfaces. It is surprising how much material falls in
this category: It extends from the classical Fresnel formulae to the very timely
problem of the tunnel effect and covers non-reflecting lenses, the Perot-Fabry
etalon, and the (no longer timely) problem of the "black submarine." The
fundamental question of the "coherence or non-coherence of light" is touched
upon briefly only in fig. 2 of this chapter. Not until the last chapter, Sec. 49,
will we return to the problem of characterizing white light.