Explicit Symmetry Breaking in Electrodynamic Systems and Electromagnetic Radiation

This book is an introduction to the concept of symmetries in electromagnetism and explicit symmetry breaking. It begins with a brief background on the origin of the concept of symmetry and its meaning in fields such as architecture, mathematics and physics. Despite the extensive developments of symmetry in these fields, it has yet to be applied to the context of classical electromagnetism and related engineering applications. This book unravels the beauty and excitement of this area to scientists and engineers.

Dhiraj Sinha is currently working as a Research Fellow at Singapore University of Technology and Design. His areas of interest are electromagnetism, antennas, sensors and thermodynamics. He studied electrical engineering at Institute of Engineering and Technology, the University of Lucknow, India, and did his doctorate in the field of MEMS based radio signal sensors at the University of Cambridge. During his post-doctoral work at Department of Engineering, the University of Cambridge and later as the CTO of Smantenna Ltd, he worked on thin film antennas aimed at their integration at the chip level. He has also worked for Oscion, a technology consulting firm aimed at offering technology services to some niche companies.

Professor Gehan Amaratunga FREng., FIET, CEng., obtained his BSc (1979) from Cardiff University and PhD (1983) from Cambridge, both in electrical engineering. He has held the 1966 Professorship in Engineering at the University of Cambridge since 1998. He currently heads the Electronics, Power and Energy Conversion Group, one of four major research groups within the Electrical Engineering Division of the Cambridge Engineering Faculty. Professor Amaratunga's research is in the broad area of materials and technologies for electrical energy and power. It intersects electrical and electronic engineering with chemistry, physics, materials science and information systems. He has an active research programme on the synthesis and electronic applications of carbon nanotubes and other nanoscale materials. His current research is focussed on integrated power conversion circuits.

Professor Amaratunga was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004. In 2007 he was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal 'for outstanding personal contributions to British engineering'. He has published over 500 archived journal and conference papers (∼15 000 citations) and is an inventor on 32 patents.