Selected Tools of Theoretical Physics IA (first half)
Lecturer
- Pok Man Lo (Prof. UWr)
- 428 Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroclaw
- email me
Time and Place
- Every Tuesday 0815-1130 @ 447 IFT
Course Description
This first half of the course introduces essential numerical approaches to physics problems. We begin with the fundamentals of solving differential equations, progress to Monte Carlo methods, and explore foundational topics in quantum many-body systems.
We employ a problem-based approach: lectures and exercises are woven together, and we learn by working on concrete problems.
Grading Scheme
- lecture: 0.6 HWs + 0.4 Exam
- exercise: 0.6 HWs + 0.4 Attendance
Textbooks
computational physics
- J.F. Boudreau and E.S. Swanson, Applied Computational Physics (Oxford University Press, 2017)
- Rubin H. Landau, Manuel J. Páez Cristian and C. Bordeianu, Computational Physics
Supplementary texts
- D. Kincaid and W. Cheney, Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing
- N.J. Giordano and H. Nakanishi, Computational Physics
- W.R. Gibbs, Computation in Modern Physics
- Heinz J Rothe, Lattice Gauge Theories
Topics
- Basic Julia / Python language for numerical programming;
- Skills of applied computational physics, including essential methods of integration, solving differential equations, and Monte Carlo methods;
- Physics concepts in the study of quantum many body systems, such as phase transition of matter, multi-particle dynamics, and in-medium response.
Preparation and Help
This course is not about hard-core programming, nor about solving large scale computing problems. Mostly we will be writing little scripts for toy numerical experiments to gain understanding of some quantum mechanical problems. (The Julia language is easy to learn even for beginners in programming. Helps will be provided during tutorial sessions. Also, you are free to choose any language you like as long as you can explain and communicate your work effectively.)
The presentation of physics topics aims to be self-contained, but it is best to come prepared. This means remembering your undergraduate classical and quantum physics.
For documentation of codes and works, use of latex and markdown is recommended.