PHY 294 – QUANTUM AND THERMAL PHYSICS DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO Winter 2016 This course will be taught as two consecutive sections: Quantum Physics (Jan 6 – Feb 24) and Thermal Physics (Feb 25 - Apr 8). The general course, tutorial and laboratory information is given on this page. The individual syllabi for the two sections are given on the following pages. COURSE WEBSITE All the course related information will be posted on the Portal. An optional discussion forum will be set up in Pizza where you can ask/answer any course related questions. INSTRUCTORS Prof. John Wei, Office: MP 081, Phone: 416 946 5943, E-mail: [email protected] Prof. Erich Poppitz, Office: MP1113A, Phone: 416 946 7546, E-mail: [email protected] COURSE COORDINATOR Dr. Xingxing Xing, Office: MP129D, Phone: 416 978 4540, Email: [email protected] Please contact the course coordinator for matters relating to course administration, such as grading and teaching assistants. LECTURES 3 hours/week, in BA1180 (Wednesdays) or MP202 (Thursdays and Fridays). The first lecture is on Wednesday, Jan 6. Section Wednesday Thursday Friday LEC0101 1 pm in BA1180 11 am in MP202 9 am in MP202 LEC0102 12 pm in BA1180 12 pm in MP202 ENQUIRIES General questions that refer to physics being discussed in the course should be posted to the course discussion forum in Piazza. We will generally provide feedback on these within 1-2 business days. Detailed physics questions should be asked in person before/after lectures or during instructor/TA office hours. Other questions (such as those about grades, tutorial or other administrative issues) should be directed to the course coordinator by email or in person. COURSE MARKING SCHEME 10 % Quizzes 20 % Laboratories 30 % Two Term Tests (each 75 minutes) 40 % Final Examination (2.5 hours) TESTS AND EXAM Term Test 1: Monday Feb 8, 9 – 10:15 am; EX300, EX310 Term Test 2: Thursday Mar 24, 9 – 10:15 am; EX100 Final Exam: TBA (time to be scheduled by Faculty during April exam period) TUTORIALS AND QUIZZES The first tutorial is on Wednesday, Jan 13. The 10 tutorials run from Jan 13 to Mar 30. Suggested problems, not to be handed in, will be posted on the Portal and announced in class. Strategies for solving them will be discussed in the tutorials and solutions will be posted. Four quizzes, based on past suggested problems, will be given during the lectures and will be graded by your tutor and handed back the following week. The schedule of the tutorials and quizzes are listed below. Week (Week of) Tutorial Notes 1 (Jan 4) Jan 6: First class. No tutorial. 2 (Jan 11) 1 Jan 13: First tutorial. Jan 15: ESEC, no classes. 3 (Jan 18) 2 4 (Jan 25) 3 Jan 29: Quiz 1 (Quantum Physics). 5 (Feb 1) 4 6 (Feb 8) Feb 8: Term Test 1 (Quantum Physics); no tutorial. 7 (Feb 15) Reading week, no classes. 8 (Feb 22) Feb 25: Thermal Physics Part starts; special on Feb 5 26: Quiz 2 (Quantum Physics). 9 (Feb 29) 6 10 (Mar 7) 7 11 (Mar 14) 8 Mar 18: Quiz 3 (Thermal Physics). 12 (Mar 21) 9 Mar 24: Term Test 2 (Thermal Physics). 13 (Mar 28) 10 14 (April 4) Apr 8: Quiz 4 (Thermal Physics); last lecture. Group Day Time Room TA (Office, phone, email) TUT0101 Wed 5-6 pm HA401 Zaheen Sadeq (MP1026, 416-978-6185, [email protected]) TUT0102 Wed 5-6 pm WB242 Yige Chen (MP1005, 416-978-5208, [email protected]) TUT0103 Wed 5-6 pm SF2202 Paul Godin (MP704, 416-946-7129, [email protected]) TUT0104 Wed 5-6 pm WB144 Andrei Vovk (MP410, 416-978-8944, [email protected]) TUT0105 Wed 9-10 am BA2139 Zaheen Sadeq (MP1026, 416-978-6185, [email protected]) TUT0106 Wed 9-10 am BA2185 Yige Chen (MP1005, 416-978-5208, [email protected]) TUT0107 Wed 9-10 am BA2175 Paul Godin (MP704, 416-946-7129, [email protected]) TUT0108 Wed 9-10 am BAB024 Andrei Vovk (MP410, 416-978-8944, [email protected]) LABORATORIES The Lab Instructor for this course is Dr. Natalia Krasnopolskaia (Office: MP251A, 416-978-8803, [email protected]). LABORATORIES WEBSITE More information about the lab can be found on http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~phy294lab/phy294lab.htm or the Portal. The lab is scheduled once every two weeks on Wednesdays with starting dates indicated below: Section Start Date Time Room PRA0101 2016/01/20 9 am – noon MP222 PRA0102 2015/01/13 9 am – noon MP222 PRA0103 2015/01/20 2 pm - 5 pm MP222 PRA0104 2015/01/13 2 pm - 5 pm MP222 PLEASE NOTE: the labs are booked and scheduled by you. As such, they do not necessarily follow the order of the content of the lectures and tutorials, and they may cover some PHY294 topics. QUANTUM PHYSICS SECTION LECTURER: Prof. John Wei Office / Phone: Room MP 081 / 416-946-5943 E-mail: [email protected] Office hours: by appointment Website: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~wei/ TEXTBOOK: Modern Physics (2nd edition), Randy Harris (Pearson Addison-Wesley). ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: 1) An Introduction to Quantum Physics, A.P. French & Edwin F. Taylor 2) Quantum Physics (3rd edition), S. Gasiorowicz 3) The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume III, Feynman-Leyton-Sands (free online at http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu) These additional references have been placed on reserve in the physics library. TENTATIVE COURSE OUTLINE: For each lecture listed below, the corresponding sections in the textbook are given. For topics not covered in detail by the textbook, supplemental materials will be posted on Portal. 1. Review of wave-particle duality [§3.1 - 4.2] 2. Schrödinger equation & its implications [§4.3 - 4.7] 3. Stationary states in bound 1D systems [§5.1 - 5.5] 4. Finite square well & simple harmonic oscillator [§5.6 - 5.7] 5. Expectation values, operators & observables [§5.8 - 5.11] 6. Superposition of states in bound 1D systems [§5.9] 7. Unbound systems: steady-state approach [§6.1] 8. Potential steps and barriers [§6.1 - 6.2] 9. Quantum tunneling [§6.2 - 6.3] 10. Particle-wave propagation [§6.4] 11. 3D infinite square well [§7.1–7.2] 12. Schrödinger equation for a central force [§7.4-7.5] 13. The hydrogen atom [§7.6-7.8] 14. Spin: the Stern-Gerlach experiment [§8.1] 15. Two identical particles in a box [§8.2] 16. Pauli exclusion principle [§8.3] THERMAL PHYSICS SECTION LECTURER: Prof. Erich Poppitz Office / Phone: MP1113A / 416-946-7546 E-mail: [email protected] Office hours: by appointment Website: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~poppitz/ TEXTBOOK: An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Daniel Schroeder (Pearson Addison-Wesley). TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE: 1. Th. Feb. 25: What is this class about? The ubiquity of microscopic and macroscopic systems and the need for different tools to describe them. The notion of thermal equilibrium and the ``zero-th law" of thermodynamics. 2. Fri. Feb. 26: Quiz II, Quantum 3. W. Mar. 2: The ideal gas. A classical microscopic model of the ideal gas, equipartition of energy, and its conservation. The first law of thermodynamics. 4. Th. Mar. 3: Heat and work. Classifying processes as quasistatic and non-quasistatic, adiabatic, isothermal, isobaric, etc. The corresponding processes for the ideal gas. 5. Fri. Mar. 4: Heat capacity at fixed volume or fixed pressure. Equipartition and the heat capacity of diatomic gases---the first puzzle that classical physics failed to explain. 6. W. Mar. 9: Reversible and irreversible processes. The tendency to maximize randomness and the usefulness of the statistical description. Micro- and macro- states, their multiplicities, their probabilities and the main postulate of statistitcal mechanics. 7. Th. Mar. 10: Entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. The spin paramagnet and the ideal gas. 8. Fri. Mar. 11: The entropy of the ideal gas, the Gibbs paradox and indistinguishability. 9. W. Mar. 16: The statistical notion of temperature. Thermal, mechanical, and diffusive equilibrium and the statistical definition of pressure and chemical potential. 10. Th. Mar. 17: Thermodynamic stability, inhomogeneous systems (the atmosphere!), metastable states and negative temperature. 11. Fri. Mar. 18: Quiz III, Thermal 12. W. Mar. 23: The use of heat and work in engines and refrigerators. The Carnot and other heat engines. Ideas behind magnetic and laser cooling. 13. Th. Mar. 24: Systems in contact with a ``reservoir," the Boltzmann distribution, the Helmholtz free energy, and the partition function. 14. W. Mar. 30: Partition function for a simple harmonic oscillator and how quantum statistics explains the jumps of the heat capacity. The partition function for the ideal gas. 15. Th. Mar. 31: The Maxwell velocity distribution. The chemical potential, the Saha equation and its application to chemistry, astrophysics and the Big Bang. 16. Fri. Apr. 1: Quantum ideal gases of indistinguishable particles. The Bose and Fermi distributions and ideas of their applications. 17. W. Apr. 6: The ultraviolet catastrophe and the blackbody radiation. The Cosmic Microwave Background as the perfect blackbody and the puzzles it raises. 18. Th. Apr. 7: Synthesis: review of what we covered and the (many) things left for the future. 19. Fri. Apr. 8: Quiz IV, Thermal Notice that I did not give chapters from the book that correspond to each topic as these are easy to match. It is clear that we cannot cover all topics from the book (but you are welcome to do so on your own) and that the schedule may have to be modified, most likely by dropping some examples if time pressures us. .