Graduate Courses
ELE 567/PHY 567Advanced Solid-State Electron PhysicsThis course deals with different aspects of electronic systems with disorder and/or strong electron-electron interactions/correlation (see Graduate School Announcement for range of topics). In 2012-13, the course will cover magnetism in disordered systems including classical and quantum spin glasses, random quantum antiferromagnets, ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors and magnetism in the disordered Hubbard model.
Reading material will consist of mostly research papers from journals.Ravindra N. Bhatt
MOL 515/PHY 570/EEB 517/CHM 517Method and Logic in Quantitative BiologyClose reading of published papers illustrating the principles, achievements, and difficulties that lie at the interface of theory and experiment in biology. Two important papers, read in advance by all students, will be considered each week; the emphasis will be on discussion with students as opposed to formal lectures. Topics include: cooperativity, robust adaptation, kinetic proofreading, sequence analysis, clustering, phylogenetics, analysis of fluctuations, and maximum likelihood methods. A general tutorial on Matlab and specific tutorials for the four homework assignments will be available.David BotsteinNed S. Wingreen
PHY 501Electricity and MagnetismA systematic treatment of the theory of electromagnetic phenomena from an advanced standpoint. Maxwell's equations are discussed with special attention to their physical meaning. Other topics include potential theory, macroscopic media, waves in simple media and in bounded structures, radiation, scattering and the limitations of the theory. Part of the time in class will be devoted to consideration of selected problems from the E&M section of previous preliminary exams.Daniel R. Marlow
PHY 505Quantum MechanicsThe physical principles and mathematical formalism of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The principles will be illustrated via selected applications to topics in atomic physics, particle physics and condensed matter.Edward J. Groth
PHY 509Quantum Field TheoryCanonical and path integral quantization of quantum fields, Feynman diagrams, gauge symmetry, elementary processes in quantum electro dynamics.Herman L. Verlinde
PHY 511Statistical MechanicsThe physical principles and mathematical formulation of statistical physics, with emphasis on applications in thermodynamics, condensed matter, physical chemistry and astrophysics. Topics that will be discussed include bose-einstein condensation, degenerate fermi systems, phase-transitions, and basics of kinetic theory. Students will be asked to participate in class discussion of challenging problems taken from past departmental generals exams (prelims).Shivaji L. Sondhi
PHY 523Introduction to RelativityThis course gives an introduction to Einstein's theory of general relativity. No prior knowledge of general relativity will be assumed, and an overview of the differential geometry needed to understand the field equations and spacetime geometries will be given. Beyond this, topics covered will include black holes, gravitational waves, and cosmological spacetimes.Frans Pretorius
PHY 525Introduction to Condensed Matter PhysicsElectronic structure of crystals, phonons, transport and magnetic properties, screening in metals, and superconductivity.Ali Yazdani
PHY 539Selected Topics in High-Energy PhysicsThe course discusses applications of fields and strings. This includes conformal field theory, statistical mechanics, D-Branes, ADS/CFTAlexander M. Polyakov