PHYS 487 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Announcements
4/23/2024: The last three lectures and end of the semester schedule
- In the remaining three lectures, my plan is to give an intro to quantum information
- The mathematical foundations of this will still be topics for the Final; keywords: pure and mixed states, density matrix, (partial) trace.
- We will still have one round of office hours on/after reading day, but it may be good to coordinate the TAs before.
4/2/2024: Midterm 2
- Midterm 2 is on Thursday, in-class. Please be on time -- the plan is to start 11am sharp. We won't be able to give extra time for latecomers.
- Material: everything covered up the (including!) the Variational Principle (no WKB!).
- Allowed materials: see bottom of this page.
- No office hours by Prof. Pfaff on the day of the exam.
2/27/2024: The next three lectures
- Prof. Pfaff cannot be in Urbana until 3/10.
- Lecture on 2/29 will be held! (someone will step in for me)
- No lectures on 3/5 and 3/7 -- I will post reading assignments (and annotations, if useful) instead.
- No office hours by WP on 2/29 and 3/7.
2/20/2024: Midterm 1
- Midterm 1 is on Thursday, in-class. Please be on time -- the plan is to start 11am sharp. We won't be able to give extra time for latecomers.
- Material: up to (including) everything covered before perturbation theory (i.e., everything also covered up to Discussion 4).
- Allowed materials: see bottom of this page.
1/30/2024:
- Prof. Pfaff's office hours (Thu, 1-2pm) are cancelled this week (only this week)
- Discussions will keep the basic format, but Homework discussions will be done in groups.
1/23/2024: NO CLASS TODAY DUE TO WEATHER!
1/15/2024: Beginning-of-the-semester schedule
- First Lecture: Tue, Jan 16.
- First Homework: Posted on Tue, Jan 16 and due Tue, Jan 21.
- First Discussions: Week 2.
- Office hours start after the first lecture.
Homework and Discussions
The most important part to learn the materials and do well on the exams is practice. Practice means solving problems and being able to explain your work. You will solve practice problems in homework sets, and discuss them in the Discussion section.
Homework format:
- Problem sets are posted on Tuesday before the end of the day.
- Deadline for submitting solutions on Gradescope is the end of the following Tuesday (11:59:59pm).
- Working in groups is strongly encouraged, but you must submit your own work. Submitting copied work is plagiarism.
- Homework grades and solutions are available one week after submission deadline.
Discussion format:
- You will present your solutions to the homework to your peers.
For each problem, the TA will randomly pick a student who submitted the problem on gradescope. Students are picked such that everyone in the section will present equally often (up to rounding).- In groups, you'll present your homework to each other, turnwise.
- Per problem, one person will present their solution and the rest of the group provides feedback and asks questions.
- Everyone is expected to present their solutions regularly, and the TA will 'moderate' your discussions and presentations.
- Per week, not all problems may be covered like this due to available time, but the TA will try to answer all open questions for all problems.
- It is expected that you are able to adequately explain your submitted homework solutions.
Exams
- Midterm 1: February 22 (in-class)
- Midterm 2: April 4 (in-class)
- Final: May 9, 7pm-10pm (location TBD)
Allowed materials
For each exam, you are allowed to bring your own handwritten cheat-sheet. It may be at most 1 single-sided, page (letter size). You can also use a calculator.Academic Integrity
All activities in this course are subject to the Academic Integrity rules as described in Article 1, Part 4, Academic Integrity, of the Student Code.
Anti-Racism and Inclusivity Statement
The Grainger College of Engineering is committed to the creation of an anti-racist, inclusive community that welcomes diversity along a number of dimensions, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity and national origins, gender and gender identity, sexuality, disability status, class, age, or religious beliefs. The College recognizes that we are learning together in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, that Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous voices and contributions have largely either been excluded from, or not recognized in, science and engineering, and that both overt racism and micro-aggressions threaten the well-being of our students and our university community.
The effectiveness of this course is dependent upon each of us to create a safe and encouraging learning environment that allows for the open exchange of ideas while also ensuring equitable opportunities and respect for all of us. Everyone is expected to help establish and maintain an environment where students, staff, and faculty can contribute without fear of personal ridicule, or intolerant or offensive language. If you witness or experience racism, discrimination, micro-aggressions, or other offensive behavior, you are encouraged to bring this to the attention of the course director if you feel comfortable. You can also report these behaviors to the Bias Assessment and Response Team (BART) (https://bart.illinois.edu/). Based on your report, BART members will follow up and reach out to students to make sure they have the support they need to be healthy and safe. If the reported behavior also violates university policy, staff in the Office for Student Conflict Resolution may respond as well and will take appropriate action.