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Graduate-Level Courses
Below are listed the various graduate-level courses that are regularly offered by the Department. Please note that not all courses are offered during a given semester; check with the Registrar or with your advisor for scheduling and other information.
Particle drifts, equations for plasmas, magnetohydrodynamics, waves and instabilities in the two-fluid model, Vlasov equation, Landau damping, controlled thermonuclear research, plasma diagnostics.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Plasma containment, stability theory in fluid models, derivation of Vlasov and Fokker-Planck equations, the dielectric tensor, velocity space and gradient instabilities, Nyquist diagrams.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 380L or consent of instructor.
Experimental work to provide exposure to physics research techniques.
Additional hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and concurrent enrollment in Physics 390.
Not open to physics majors. Special topics for physics teachers. Three lecture hours a week for one semester. May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, a Bachelor’s degree in science or mathematics, and consent of the graduate advisor.
Same as Computational and Applied Mathematics 381C.
Dynamical and statical descriptions and solutions of many-body, nonlinear physical systems by computation. Theory of computation and applications to various branches of physics.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 385K and 387K, or consent of instructor.
Same as Computational and Applied Mathematics 381M.
Theory of analytic functions; linear algebra and vector spaces; orthogonal functions; ordinary differential equations; partial differential equations; Green’s functions; complex variables.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Same as Computational and Applied Mathematics 381N.
Continuation of Physics 381M. Topology, functional analysis, approximation methods, group theory, differential manifolds.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Computational and Applied Mathematics 381M or Physics 381M.
Flow of ideal and viscous fluids; introduction to turbulence; boundary layers; sound and shock waves.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 381M, 385K, and 387K.
Basic concepts of evolution and stability, examples of instabilities, low dimensional dynamical systems, chaos, characterization of temporal chaos, pattern formation, Hamiltonian systems.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
The cell, small molecules and chemical kinetics, forces on the molecular scale, proteins, lipids and membranes, biopolymers, neurons and electrical signal transduction, and complex pattern formation in cells and cell aggregates.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Classical and relativistic Hamiltonian mechanics; Hamilton-Jacobi theory; Lagrangian mechanics for continuous media; symmetry principles and conservation laws.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Equilibrium statistical mechanics; introduction to nonequilibrium concepts; ensembles; classical and quantum gases; statistical physics of solids.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 385K or consent of instructor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
With consent of the graduate adviser, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Physical principles of acoustic, optical, electromagnetic, radiation, and motion sensors.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Physics for applied and industrial purposes.
May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Electrostatics and magnetostatics; boundary value problems; Maxwell’s equations; plane waves; wave guides; diffraction; multipole radiation.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Magnetohydrodynamics and plasmas; relativity; collisions of charged particles; radiation from moving charges; radiation damping.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 387K.
Tensor calculus; Riemannian geometry; geometry of Minkowski space-time; special relativity theory.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 387K.
General relativity theory; gravitational field equations; weak field approximations; Schwarzschild solution, observable consequences; other topics.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester. Offered in the spring semester only.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 387M.
Reviews of current topics in physics research.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Topics to be announced.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
May be repeated for credit. Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Hilbert space and operators; Schroedinger and Heisenberg equations; solutions for systems in one and three dimensions; theory of spin and orbital angular momentum; the effect of symmetries; approximation techniques; elementary scattering theory.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Perturbation techniques; systems of identical particles; quantum theory of radiation; emission and absorption of photons; selection rules; life times; scattering theory for light and particles, S-matrix; relativistic corrections to electron motion.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 389K.
May not be counted toward the Master’s degree in physics.
Hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
May not be counted toward the Master’s degree in physics.
Hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
May not be counted toward the Master’s degree in physics.
Hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
May not be counted toward the Master’s degree in physics.
Hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Quasi-linear theory, weak turbulence, large amplitude waves, plasma radiation, shock waves, shock structure, computer techniques. Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 380L.
Topics to be announced.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Some sections are offered on the credit/no credit basis only; these are identified in the Course Schedule.
With consent of instructor, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, Physics 380L, and consent of instructor.
Current topics in plasma theory.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Lattice vibrations and thermal properties of solids; band theory of solids; transport properties of metals and semiconductors; optical properties; magnetic properties; magnetic relaxation; superconductivity.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, Physics 389K, and Physics 375S or the equivalent.
Elementary excitations: phonons, electrons, spin waves; interactions: phonon-phonon, electron-electron, electron-phonon; theory of metals and semiconductors; transport theory; optical properties.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 392K.
Overview of many-body theory; second quantization; Green’s functions and Feynman diagrams; finite-temperature, imaginary-time Green’s functions; the disordered metal; path integrals; broken symmetries; and local moments.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced. Additional hour(s) to be arranged.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Meets with CHE 384, EE 396V, and ME 397.
Topics to be announced. Current topic: Theory of inorganic nanostructure for device application.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. With consent of instructor, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, Physics 392K, and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Meets with AST 382C.
Topics to be announced. The basic principles of compressible gas dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, developed and applied in an astrophysical context to a wide range of astronomical phenomena.
With consent of instructor, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Spectra of atoms and diatomic molecules; quantum electronics; experimental techniques.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester. May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Gaussian beam optics, interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter, semiclassical laser theory, experimental laser systems, nonlinear optical susceptibilities, harmonic generation, wave mixing, electro-optic and acousto-optic effects, coherent transient effects, optical breakdown, laser-plasma interactions.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, and either Physics 387K and 389K or consent of instructor.
Continuation of Physics 395K. Advanced atomic physics of various laser systems, optical coherence and diffraction theory, pulse propagation and dispersion effects, advanced laser oscillator and amplifier physics, laser amplifier chain design, and chirped-pulse amplification.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; Physics 387K, 389K, and 395K; and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Additional hour(s) to be arranged.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced. Application of ultrafast spectroscopy in physics, chemistry, and biology.
With consent of instructor, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Historical introduction to elementary particles, elementary particle dynamics, relativistic kinematics, symmetries, bound states, the Feynman calculus, quantum electrodynamics, electrodynamics of quarks and hadrons, quantum chromodynamics, weak interactions, and gauge theories.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing, Physics 389K, and knowledge of special relativity and scattering.
Quantization of the Klein-Gordon, Dirac, and electromagnetic field theories; theory of interacting fields, perturbation theory, and renormalization.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 389K.
Path-integral formalism, massless particles, electrodynamics, nonperturbative methods, one-loop calculations in quantum electrodynamics, general renormalization theory, soft photons, bound statics in quantum electrodynamics.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and Physics 396K.
Introduction to string theory and conformal field theory. The free string, conformal invariance and conformal field theory, supersymmetry and string interactions.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 396K or the equivalent, or consent of instructor.
Advanced conformal field theory, perturbative string theory, and compactification. Introduction to nonperturbative aspects of string theory.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 396P.
Topics to be announced.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. Course number may be repeated for credit when the topics vary. With consent of instructor, any topic may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Additional hour(s) to be arranged.
Some sections are offered on the credit/no credit basis only; these are identified in the Course Schedule. With consent of instructor, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Seminars in theoretical physics.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. Course number may be repeated for credit when the topics vary.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Systematics of stable nuclei; nuclear structure; decay of the nucleus; cross sections and reaction mechanisms; the elementary particles.
Three lecture hours a week for one semester.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing; and Physics 389K or consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Topics to be announced. The application of radiation and radiation protection instrumentation. Includes personnel monitoring; radiation detection systems; gamma-ray spectroscopy; determination of environmental radiation; counting statistics; and gamma and neutron shielding.
Taught at J. J. Pickle Research Campus in the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab Annex.
Additional hour(s) to be arranged.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and consent of instructor.
Various seminar topics in nanoscience.
Hour(s) to be arranged. Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing.
Restricted enrollment; contact the Department for permission to register for this class.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing in Physics, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Physics 698A.
A review of physics teaching strategies, administrative procedures, and classroom responsibilities. Includes a review and critique of each participant’s classroom teaching.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing and appointment as a teaching assistant.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Admission to candidacy for the Doctoral degree, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Admission to candidacy for the Doctoral degree, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Admission to candidacy for the Doctoral degree, and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Physics 399R, 699R, or 999R; and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Physics 399R, 699R, or 999R; and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.
Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.
Prerequisites
Physics 399R, 699R, or 999R; and written consent of instructor filed with the graduate advisor.