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480W, Experimental Physics

Dr. Greg Severn MWF 1:25-2:20 ST230, ST285 (Lectures & Tutorials) T 2:30-5:20 ST290 & ST 287 (Laboratory ) (Dated: Spring 2011 Draft Version 1.8)

Professor: Dr. Greg Severn, ST285 x6845, sev- (eventually supported by Web CT) see [email protected] http://www.sandiego.edu/~severn/p480W. A Our work with LTEX will bring us to the pcs in Office Hours: T 11, W 11 Th 2-4 F 10, and appoint- SCST290, where a windows version of the software ments are always possible. These are tentative, and is installed. It is free ware, and the student is I will try to find a set that works for everyone. This encouraged to go to http://www.miktex.org/ to is typically impossible, but I will try. download a personal copy. Just about all you need A Course: This course is an upper division experimental to know about LTEX can be found on one of the course, which emphasizes the exe- links in our course web page. cution of laboratory experiments (we have 4 experi- Learning Outcomes: The ments planned for this semester) and what one can Physics Major Program currently recognizes 4 learn from them. I think each of them is pretty learning outcomes. Throughout the program and cool, for they illustrate very deep physical phe- especially at the time of graduation, nomena pertaining to core areas of physics: quan- tum , atomic and , laser 1. Physics majors should have a thorough knowl- physics and physics. Attention to the prac- edge and comprehension of the core concepts tical side of testing advanced modern physical the- of classical and modern physics. ories in the laboratory is an important part of the 2. Physics majors should have a set of fundamen- course. Well designed experiments require appara- tal skills that can be applied to a variety of sit- tus that can enhance the signal and suppress the uations, including a) writing skills; b) presen- noise. Electronic instruments useful for such pur- tation skills; c) laboratory skills; d) computer poses are ubiquitous in physics research labs, and skills; and e) problem-solving skills. so you will need to become familiar with a variety 3. Physics majors should be adequately trained of them. But learning about experimental work, to apply their physics experience and knowl- how experiments are designed, also requires atten- edge to analyze new situations. tion to the theoretical ideas that are proved and tested. This grasp of the integration of theory and 4. Physics majors understand and articulate the , the interplay between the two, is also nature of science, and its development through an important part of this course. Coming to un- the scientific method. derstand how theory and experiment relate to each We will revisit these throughout the semester, high- other in a carefully designed experiment is an es- lighting practical and concrete examples of each of sential part of understanding how science advances. these as they arise. I have alluded to each of these Mastery of experimental and theoretical ideas will in the course description. be demonstrated through well written summary re- ports. These will conform to current standards for Homework: There will be no homework assignments in research papers in Physics. Three papers are re- the tradition sense of composing detailed theoret- quired. Students will learn to format mathemati- ical solutions to well posed (meaning, the prob- A cal prose using LTEX. The course satisfies the up- lem has an answer) theoretical problems. There per division laboratory course requirement in the will however be two kinds of tutorial problems, one physics major and satisfies the GE upper division very well defined, the other, not. Each of first kind writing intensive course requirement as well. these assignments help you ‘get up to speed’ with LAT X. Beyond this, you will learn how to write Experiments in Modern Physics E Text: 2nd Ed., A.C. scientific papers suitable for publication. The math Melissinos and J. Napolitano, Academic Press, and physics communities, on the whole, have used 2003. some version of TEX (the American Physical So- A Lab Manual(s): Reprints, lab handouts, and support- ciety uses REVTeX, a version of LTEX) for for- ing documentation for each experiment will be matting mathematical prose, and so will we. But posted to our website or placed in the filing cab- we will discuss many aspects of scientific writing, inet in ST290. not just the formatting of equations. The Amer- ican Institute of Physics Manual of Style will be Web pages: Our course has its own web page, our guide. I should mention that each paper will 2

have three scores, one for physics content, one for Each final draft will be scored in each category, English (grammar, composition, etc.), and one for weighted, and finally converted to a score out of following the rules for acceptable formatting estab- 100. A copy of the scoring matrix is also on line. lished by the American Institute of Physics, as set In addition to the rubric, there is a peer review forth in the AIP Manual of Style. form. Each of you will be assigned to read a sub- The second kind are definitely vague. These con- mitted draft and review it, along the lines indicated sist of the background reading and thinking re- on the reviewer’s form. You may wish to print out quired for the tutorial meetings between myself and a copy so as to mark up the manuscript. You may each lab group (which will happen typically once actually prefer simply itemizing comments in a file a week), and for the laboratory periods (Tuesday inclusion directly on the reviewer’s form. This is afternoons) themselves. Begin by reading the labo- probably best practice. Again, please have a look ratory experiment descriptions for each lab (the ex- at the reviewer’s form on the public course website. periments are described in table ??). One will find Grades: The breakdown of the final grade will be as fol- a section that details what background readings are A lows: Papers - 70%, Tutorial & LTEXassignment available in the course text, and what lab manuals 20%, Final Oral Exam 10%. Tutorial grades will are available to you. Read these. While doing this, be assigned according to the demonstrated ability pay careful attention to the section, ‘questions to of each student to grasp the essence of each ex- ponder’, for these, and questions like these, will periment, that is to say, by preparing responses frame our discussions in the weekly tutorial ses- for the ‘questions to ponder’ section of each lab- sions. oratory experiment description. This of course in- cludes asking honest questions about the readings and the tutorial questions (some of which involve calculations). But don’t worry, your assessment TABLE I. List of Experiments here depends more on how you finish than on how Experiment Code Topic & Laboratory you begin each new experiment. One of course can OP High resolution optical spec- lower one’s score by not doing the readings or try- troscopy, Zeeman effect and ing the problems or by not participating in the Hyperfine structure (hfs) in Rb tutorial discussions. But if one troubles over the ? NMR Nuclear Spin Echoes and estimating readings conscientiously, the experiments will be spin-spin relaxation times. easier to do, and the paper will be easier to write. A P Plasma discharge physics, the Lang- The LTEXassignments only need be done to get full muir Probe, and Ion Acoustic Waves credit. Roughly speaking, I assign letter grades ac- in laboratory plasmas cording to the scale, 85/75/65/50/0. The manage- L High resolution laser ment reserves the right to tweak the scales and final and Rb hfs grades slightly to better match the performance of the class. Calendar: There will be two teams of experimenters. A typical week will comprise two tutorial sessions, one for each team that is pertinent for the that Writing standards for final submissions: Three team’s current experiment, and one large group categories scoring a paper are described below. meeting in which both teams will meet and dis- Questions of the sort that the reader asks upon cuss common issues: experimental techniques and reading the text, that the writer asks upon revising strategies, physics issues that relate the two exper- the text, and that the ‘Journal Editor’ asks upon iments currently being done, and scientific writing. grading the text are included. The questions are So, Mondays will be the day for the Group I tu- represented in a grading rubric which is found on torial meeting, Wednesdays, Group II, Fridays for the public course website.? I am always tweaking the common meeting, and Thursday afternoons for it. The current version is online. laboratory work. The planned sequence of experi- ments can be found in the table below. Some spe- cial days are noted. The horizontal lines (tenta- 1. Physics Content: w=4 tively!) indicate the period of time allotted for each 2. Grammar and Composition: w=3 experiment and the date on which the submission for each paper is due. A 3. AIP and LTEX formatting: w=1 3

TABLE II. Tentative plan for sequence of experiments. Week Date Group I Group II I 24 Jan. OP NMR II 31 Feb. III 7 Feb. IV 14 Feb.a b V 21 Feb. VI 28 Feb. NMR OP VII 7 Mar. VIII 14 Mar. Spring Break! IX 21 Mar. X 28 Mar. P L XI 4Apr. XII 11 Apr. XIII 18 Apr. Easter Break begins 21 Apr. XIV25Apr. L P XV 2 May c XVI 9 May Final Exam, 13 May, 2-4pm a Submit first draft this week; also submit reviewers comments. b Final draft of first paper submitted. c Last day of classes on 10 May! We’ll make the Tuesday an open lab day.

1 http://www.sandiego.edu~severn/p480w very important to strive to understand things for yourself, 2 Pascal said, “We are usually convinced more easily by rea- in your own way. sons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.” I really like this quote. It really is