Letter to the editor: About the monograph Electrodynamics of Guiding Structures by A.A. Barybin

Recently, a monograph on classical electrodynamics by A.A. Barybin (1) was published. The foreword and introduction to this book reflect well the goals and intensions of the author to collect and describe exten- sive and well-established materials on the theory of excitation and coupling of the modes in various guiding structures. The subject is modern, topical, and interest- ing. Such encompassing books are always needed, and readers usually welcome such publications. Unfortunately, Barybin deviated from the declared goal. He primarily described his views and the results of his investigations. This circumstance could be wel- comed, because the monographic version offers more possibilities for detailed description of the reasoning schemes for the readers and discusses the ways to fur- ther develop the theory and its extensions. Moreover, in this case, the subject of the monograph is perceived as vivid and developing. However, the excitation theory, which is proposed by Barybin as a generalizing idea and which is used, accordingly, as the key concept of the entire monograph, is incorrect in its essence.