Physics 212 Course Syllabus
Spring Semester, 1998

Professor Henry Greenside

hsg@phy.duke.edu     660-2548     Physics 047


[ Welcome | Prerequisites | Time and Place | Office Hours | Computer Accounts ]

[ Grading | References ]


Welcome

Welcome to Physics 212 which is the second part of a year-long sequence in quantum mechanics for Duke undergraduates. Physics 212 continues from Physics 211 by discussing further foundational concepts and techniques then by applying these to a variety of interesting scientific problems. Topics will include many-particle three-dimensional quantum systems; perturbation, variational, and Monte Carlo methods for approximating ground states and energies of many particle systems; and scattering theory. Applications will be made to astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, particle and nuclear physics, chemistry, and computing.


Course Prerequisites

Students should have a solid understanding of the material covered in Physics 211 or equivalent.


Time and Place

The course will start off in Physics 05 on Mondays and Thursdays, from 2 pm to 3:15 pm. The location will likely change though since I am trying to find a more seminar-oriented classroom.

There will be a few extra optional classes, e.g., to learn how to simulate quantum mechanical problems on a computer and to visit some Duke laboratories using quantum mechanics in interesting ways. The times and places for these extra meetings will be sent by e-mail and also posted on the course web page.


Office Hours

I have are no fixed office hours. However, I will make my best effort to meet with you in a timely way if you have any questions at all about the course (or more generally about physics or about Duke of if you would just like to chat). If you are in the Physics building, please drop by my office, Physics 047, and say hello.

To set up a meeting, send e-mail to hsg@phy.duke.edu or call my office phone at 660-2658.

Please feel free to send me e-mail at any time. I am often logged on in the evenings and on the weekends and will be glad to talk about the course or homework.


Computer Accounts

All students will need to have active computer accounts at Duke that will allow them to read and to send e-mail, to access the World Wide Web through some browser, and to use the program called Mathematica. Announcements related to the course will be sent by e-mail and also posted on the course web page via the link Announcements .


Grading

Your final grade for the course will be based on class participation, on weekly assignments and occasional quizzes, on two midterm examinations, and on a final class presentation and paper. There will not be a final exam for this course. The contributions of these different components to your final grade will be as follows:

Activity Percent of Total Grade
Class participation 15%
Homeworks 25%
Quizzes 10%
First midterm exam 15%
Second midterm exam 15%
Final project and paper 20%

The following are more detailed comments about these different components:

Class Participation

Your active class participation throughout the semester will be extremely important, especially given the smaller class and seminar-oriented discussions. You should do your best to come prepared to class by reading and thinking about the material in the textbooks and in previous lectures before each class. You should keep a notebook of questions and ideas as the course progresses and bring these to class for discussion. You should be prepared to go up to the blackboard and work out some question with the help of the rest of the class or with some guidance from the professor.

Homework

You are allowed to collaborate on homework but you must write up your homework on your own, in your own words, and with your own understanding. You must also acknowledge explicitly at the beginning of your homework anyone who gave you substantial help, e.g., classmates or myself. Failure to write your homeworks in your own words and failure to acknowledge help when given can lead to severe academic penalties so please play by the rules.

Your main two goals in writing up your homework will be to be clear (so that I can understand what you have written) and to demonstrate insight. Writing clearly means using readable handwriting. You should avoid tiny script and avoid trying to cram many sentences and equations onto a single page. Leave plenty of space between symbols and between lines of equations and leave plenty of space between the ending of one homework problem and the beginning of the next. Spread your answer out over many pages if necessary; paper is cheap compared to the time of working on or grading your homework.

Demonstrating insight means using complete sentences that explain what you are doing and why (e.g., as you proceed with some mathematical derivation). Cryptic brief answers like "yes", "no", "24" or "f(x)" will not be given credit. Your homework must show that you understand how you got your answer and the significance of your answer. A simple criterion for a well-written complete answer is that you will be able to understand it yourself a month after you have written your answer, even without remembering what the original question was.

In writing your homeworks, you should also pay attention to details. All symbols should be given names the first time you introduce them (say "the momentum p" or "the flux F" instead of just using the symbols p and F). Physical units should be given for any answer that is a physical quantity ("the angular momentum was A=0.02 J-sec", "the angle was µ=0.32 radians"). Graphs should have their axes clearly labeled by symbol and units, and should have a title explaining the purpose of the graph. To learn how to write in an effective scientific style, try reading research articles such as those published in Physical Review Letters .

Late homeworks are not accepted. If you think you will not be able to hand in your homework by its due date, please get in touch with me as soon as possible (at least three days before the due date) and explain what the situation is.

Class Presentation and Paper

The final presentation and paper will be a month-long opportunity for you to investigate a quantum mechanical topic that is especially interesting to you. The presentation will be a 1/2-hour lecture to the class using overhead slides and the blackboard, and the paper will be a 15-page double-spaced journal-quality article that provides the details of your presentation in a readable clear way. (We will take time out later in the semester to discuss how to prepare such a scientific talk and paper using the REVTEX package of the American Physical Society (APS).) My goal is for you to give a talk at the level that one sees at the yearly meetings of the APS, i.e., as given by professional scientists.

Possible topics might include: the recent experimental advance of Bose-Einstein condensation, Hawking's theory of black hole evaporation by quantum tunneling, the quantum mechanics of a simple chemical reaction, quantum chaos in nuclei, quantum cryptography, quantum computing, quantum measurement theory, interstellar chemistry, the predicted high-pressure transition of hydrogen to the metallic superconducting state in the cores of big planets, the Berkeley prediction of a crystal harder than diamond (not yet synthesized), the quantized Hall effect, superfluidity, superconductivity, Josephson junctions, recent advances in medical magnetic resonance imaging, a physical origin for the chirality of biological molecules, nanotubules, and evidence for internal structure of quarks.


References

Physics 212 will continue to use the two textbooks that you previously purchased for Physics 211:

There will also be journal articles handed out from time to time. The following books will be on reserve in the Math-Physics library and should be helpful for supplementary browsing and reading:

Please continue to browse through periodicals such as Physics Today , Physical Review Letters , Science , Science News , and Scientific American to increase your awareness and appreciation of quantum mechanics as a theory and tool.


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