Condensed Matter Physics I

Welcome to the Spring 2016 web page for PHYS560

Announcements (05/12)

Final exam has been posted: Final Exam
Your exam time is from 8:00am, May 12th to noon, May 13rd.
During the exam, you should not consult with anyone, and should not help other students.
During the exam, if you have a question, you can send an email to Shinsei Ryu or Hassan.
You should submit your work in time. (We will start grading right after the deadline.) You should post your work to the yellow post that you use for homeworks. If this is not possible, you can send your work via email to Hassan.

Lectures: Mon, Wed: 12:30 PM - 1:50 PM in 158 Loomis

Instructor:
Shinsei Ryu
- e-mail: ryuu_at_illinois_dot_edu
- phone: 217 333 4229
- office: 2129 Engineering Sciences Building (ESB)

Grader:
Hassan Shapourian
- e-mail: hassan88_at_illinois_dot_edu
- office: 3139 Engineering Sciences Building

Course Overview

Condensed matter physics is a branch of physics where the main focus is on demystifying the properties of phases of matter by using fundamental laws of nature such as quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and statistical mechanics. In this course, we will briefly explain some of the important concepts and standard tools which are widely used in the condensed matter physics. The topics include free-electron gas, crystalline structures, Bloch theorem, band structure, electron transport in materials, electron-electron interactions, elasticity and phonons, ferromagnetism and second-order phase transitions, and superconductivity...

Homework

There will be six homework sets. Homework sets should be placed in the 560 homework box (located on the north side of Loomis Lab, between rooms 267 and 271 LLP) by 05:00PM on the day of the due date. Unless a valid, verifyable excuse is given, homework sets which are submitted late will receive a 50% penalty. Homework sets which are turned in after one week from their due date will receive no credit. You may discuss the homework problems with your classmates, but each student is required to provide his/her own solutions.

Grading policies

Your grade will be based on the homework assignments, and final exam.

Final exam instruction

Details should be announced later.

Office hours (Tentative plan)

Monday 3:30- 4:30pm Shinsei Ryu (@ 2129 ESB)
Wednesday 2 - 3pm Hassan Shapourian (@ 3139 ESB)
Piazza Forum: https://piazza.com/illinois/spring2016/phys560/home

Textbook

Michael P. Marder; Condensed Matter Physics, 2nd Edition (available online from our library).

Lecture notes

Lecture notes (last updated: 05/04)

Tentative course syllabus

Week	Date	Lecture	Homework
1	01/18	M.L.King Day
	01/20	No class
2	01/25	Many-body quantum mechanics, Fermi statistics (Textbook: Chap.6, App. C)
	01/27	Ideal Fermi gas (Textbook: Chap. 6)
3	02/01	Bloch theorem (Textbook: Chap 7)	HW1 (due 02/18) HW1sol
	02/03	Band structure (Textbook: Chap. 7)
4	02/08	Nearly free electrons, tight-binding (Textbook: Chap. 8)
	02/10	Nearly free electrons, tight-binding (Textbook: Chap. 8)
5	02/15	Tight-binding (Textbook: Chap. 8)	HW2 (due 03/03) HW2sol
	02/17	Crystal structures (Textbook: Chap. 1 and 2)
6	02/22	Semiclassics (Free fermi gas) (Textbook: Chap. 16)
	02/24	Semiclassics (Bloch electrons), Wannier function (Textbook: Chap. 16 and 8)
7	02/29	Semiclassics (Bloch electrons, Berry phase) (Textbook: Chap. 16)	HW3 (due 03/17) HW3sol
	03/02	Quantum oscillations (Chap. 16)
8	03/07	Quantum oscillations (Chap. 16) Boltzmann equation (Textbook: Chap. 17)
	03/09	Boltzmann equation (Textbook: Chap. 17)
9	03/14	Boltzmann equation, various transport phenomena	HW4 (due 04/07) HW4sol
	03/16	APS March Meeting
10	03/21	Spring break
	03/23	Spring break
11	03/28	Hartree-Fock(Chapt. 9)
	03/30	Fermi liquid (Chapt. 17)
12	04/04	Fermi liquid	HW5 (due 04/21) HW5sol
	04/06	Fermi liquid, spontaneous symmetry breaking (intro)
13	04/11	superfluid/superconductivity (BCS) (Chap. 27.3)
	04/13	superfluid/superconductivity
14	04/18	no class
	04/20	no class
15	04/25	Semiconductors (Chap. 19)
	04/27	Semiconductors (Chap. 19)
16	05/02	p-n junction, 2d electron gas, quantum wires (Chap. 19)
	05/04	Quantum wires (Chap. 19)
	05/12 - 05/13	Final exam (8:00am on 05/12 till noon on 05/13; "Core" exam time:1:30-4:30 PM on 05/12	Final Exam

Homework

Homework1 (due: 2/18) Solution1

Homework2 (due: 3/03) Solution2

Homework3 (due: 3/17) Solution3

Homework4 (due: 4/07) Solution4

Homework5 (due: 4/21) Solution5