PHY3004W - Advanced Physics

Course Outline:

This course completes the major in Physics. The theory component aims to develop advanced skills in problem solving within physics, and includes the following topics: Electromagnetism: Maxwell's equations in vacuum and matter, momentum and angular momentum in electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, wave guides, gauge transformations, retarded potentials, electric and magnetic dipole radiation, special relativity, relativistic kinematics and electrodynamics, electromagnetic field tensor. Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics: Temperature, heat and work, laws of thermodynamics, ensembles and entropy, Boltzmann distribution and Helmholtz free energy, thermal radiation, chemical potential and Gibbs distribution, Fermi-Dirac statistics, electrons in metals, Bose-Einstein statistics, phonons, photons and the black-body distribution, the Bose-Einstein condensate, applications to classical and quantum systems. Applications of Quantum Mechanics: Atomic Physics (atomic structure and spectra, selection rules, spin, fine structure, Zeeman effect, time dependent and independent perturbation theory); Nuclear and Particle Physics (properties of nuclei, nuclear forces, structure, reactions and models, nuclear models, interactions of elementary particles, quarks and leptons, symmetries and the gauge forces); and Solid State Physics (crystal structure, lattice vibrations, electron states in solids, energy band theory, semiconductor physics and devices). The laboratory component includes practical and computational tasks to develop advanced skills of experimentation and scientific report writing.