APPLIED PHYSICS GRADUATE PROGRAMJoint PhD Program Between Weinberg College and Mccormick School of Engineering

First quarter: Vector spaces and linear operators, postulates of quantum mechanics, observables and Hermitian operators, state vectors and quantum dynamics, stationary states, bound states, the harmonic oscillator, statistical interpretation and the Uncertainty Principle, symmetry and conservation laws, quantization of angular momentum, intrinsic spin, the Stern-Gerlach experiment, spherically symmetric potentials.

Second quarter: Feynman's path integral formulation, the classical limit, Schroedinger's wave equation, electromagnetic potentials, Aharonov-Bohm effects, Landau levels, Coulomb potential, approximation methods, variational principles, bound-state perturbation theory, Dirac's theory of the electron, electron spin, Dirac-Pauli equation, magnetic moment of the electron, fine structure of hydrogen, hyperfine interactions.

Electrostatics, boundary-value problems, Green's functions, multipoles, electrostatics of macroscopic media, conductors and dielectrics, magnetostatics, Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic waves and gauge transformations, conservation laws.

Electrostatics, boundary-value problems, Green's functions, multipoles, electrostatics of macroscopic media, conductors and dielectrics, magnetostatics, Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic waves and gauge transformations, conservation laws.

Statistical mechanics and probability. Microstates and macrostates. Thermodynamic limit. Ensembles: microcanonical, canonical, grand canonical. Classical ideal gas: Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. Quantum gases: Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions. Thermodynamic potentials. Interacting systems. Phase diagrams and phase transitions.