Classical asymptotic expansions, while producing a good approximation for the diffracted fields in general, appear hardly applicable in the case of extremely elongated bodies. Thus, there are problems that are on the one hand too difficult for numerical solvers due to large system size, and on the other hand make the description with classical asymptotic methods hard. The book explains why this happens and suggests the way out. By defining the characteristics of a strongly elongated body it introduces a special class of asymptotic approximations, which are in some sense uniform with...