Course Name
Paradigms in Physics: Periodic Systems
Course Number
PH 427 / PH 527
Year/Term
LizReorg
Display other available years here.
Course Credits
4
Class meeting times
9 hours of lecture/discussion per week for five weeks.
Prerequisites
PH424, PH425
Course description
Quantum waves in position and momentum space; Bloch waves in one-dimensional periodic systems, and the reciprocal lattice; coupled harmonic oscillators; phonons.

Topic/Day

Activities

Resources

Homework Due

Day 1
Welcome & Overview
2 Coupled Oscillators
Day 2
2 Coupled Oscillators
Day 3
HW 1
Ring of 4 Oscillators
Day 5
HW 2
N Oscillators
Day 6
Infinite Oscillators in a Ring
Day 8
HW 3
Day 9
Bound States for the Finite Well

Reading: McIntyre 5.5

Bound States PhET

Day 10
HW 4
Qualitative (Eyeball) Solutions for a Bumpy Well
Reading: McIntyre 5.10.1
Day 11
Free Particle
Day 13
HW 5
Intro to Momentum Space
Day 16
Gaussian Wave Packets

Reading: McIntyre 6.2

Wave Packet PhET

Day 17
Momentum Representation Operators
Day 18
HW 7
Uncertainty Principle
Reading: McIntyre 6.3
Day 22
Band Structure
Reading: McIntyre 15.4
Day 23
HW 9
Density of States
Reading: McIntyre 15.7
Day 24
Bloch's Theorem & the Molecular States
Reading: McIntyre 15.5
Day 25
HW 10