WWW: http://physics.oregonstate.edu/~schneidg/courses/ph466/
Location: Weniger 377 (lectures) / Weniger 412 (labs)
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Instructor: Guenter Schneider
email: Guenter.Schneider@physics.oregonstate.edu
phone: 7-1706
office: Weniger 491
office hours: TWR 1-2pm, F 12-1pm or by appointment
TA: Sasha Govyadinov
email: govyadia@onid.orst.edu
phone: 7-4150
office: Weniger 401
office hours: TBA
Prerequisites: Ph465/565 or instructors consent.
You need to be able to program in Java or similar programming language ( as long as it is available on the computers in Weniger 412). Physics at the advanced undergraduate level. All physics concepts used will be introduced and explained in class.
Grades:
Homework 60%
Class/Lab participation 10%
Midterm exam 10%
Final exam 20% (maybe take home).
There will be no makeup midterm. Instead, the final will count 30%.
Homework:
Weekly assignments, handed out on Thursday, due back the following Thursday before class. Typically homeworks will consist of your program, your results in form of graphs or tables, and a short write up. Submission is via email. Details follow on the first homework assignment.
Text:
Landau, Paez, Bordeianu, A Survey of Computational Physics, with Java extensions. (Available as bound notes from bookstore); Princeton Univ Press, 2007.
Additional Course Material:
Lecture notes and additional material will be made available via software repository. Details in the first lab.
1. Monte Carlo Method in Statistical Physics
Application: Ferromagnetic 2D Ising model.
Class Notes: Chapters 5, 20.I.
2. Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Application: Lennard Jones gas/liquid/solid.
Class Notes: Chapter 15.
3. Multidimensional Minimization Problems:
Conjugate gradient/Quasi-Newton methods. Simulated annealing.
Applications: Spin glass, Structure of metal clusters.
4. Finite difference solutions of partial differential equations.
Applications: Diffusion, Solitons, Maxwell equations, Time-dependent Schroedinger equation.
Class Notes: Chapters 16, 17, 18.
5. Additional topics, time permitting.
Integral Equations in Quantum Mechanics (Chapter 19).
Quantum Monte Carlo (Chapter 20.II).
Exact diagonalization of Quantum Spin Systems.
Electronic structure of Graphene (2D carbon) and Carbon Nanotubes.