PHYS 515 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schedule
Lectures will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 13:00pm - 14:20pm in 222 Loomis Laboratory.
Starting in week 2, homework sets will be available on this website on Tuesdays after the lecture. They are due the following Tuesday before 11:55 p.m. Central US and must be submitted online via my physics.
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The lecture notes are included here for your convenience. However, they are not a replacement for a textbook! PLEASE DON'T SHARE THE LECTURE NOTES!
The schedule below may be a bit altered during the semester, depending on how fast we progress and go over the topics. Exam dates, homeworks, and paper reviews dates will not change.
For details on semester dates, registration deadlines, etc. please check the Academic calendar.
| Week | Date | Lecture | Homework 1-hour paper review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 08/25/2026 |
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| Thu 08/27/2026 |
L2. Special Relativity |
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| 2 | Tue 09/01/2026 |
L3. Lorentz transformations |
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| Thu 09/03/2026 |
L4. Vectors and 1-forms |
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| 3 | Tue 09/8/2026 |
L5. Tensors |
HW 1 due HW 2 assigned |
| Thu 09/10/2026 |
L6. Tensors |
paper review 1 due | |
| 4 | Tue 09/15/2026 |
L7. Physics in flat spacetimes |
HW 2 due HW 3 assigned |
| Thu 09/17/2026 |
L8. Physics in flat spacetimes |
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| 5 | Tue 09/22/2026 |
L9. Manifolds |
HW 3 due HW 4 assigned |
| Thu 09/24/2026 |
L10. Manifolds |
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| 6 | Tue 09/29/2026 |
L11. Curves and vector fields |
HW 4 due HW 5 assigned |
| Thu 10/01/2026 |
L12.Tensors in curved spacetime |
paper review 2 due | |
| 7 | Tue 10/06/2026 |
L13. Tensors in curved spacetime |
HW 5 due No homework assigned |
| Thu 10/08/2026 |
L14. Differential forms |
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| 8 | Tue 10/13/2026 | MIDTERM EXAM | No homework due HW 6 assigned |
| Thu 10/15/2026 |
L15. Connection and covariant derivative |
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| 9 | Tue 10/20/2026 |
L16. Parallel transport and geodesics |
HW 6 due HW 7 assigned |
| Thu 10/22/2026 |
L17. Riemann curvature |
paper review 3 due | |
| 10 | Tue 10/27/2026 |
L18. Symmetries and Killing vectors |
HW 7 due HW 8 assigned |
| Thu 10/29/2026 |
L19. Gravitation and Einstein's equations |
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| 11 | Tue 11/03/2026 |
L20. Einstein's equations and energy conditions EXTRA: Lecture notes 20a |
HW 8 due HW 9 assigned |
| Thu 11/05/2026 |
L21. Schwarzschild metric and Birkhoff's theorem EXTRA: Lecture notes 21a |
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| 12 | Tue 11/10/2026 |
L22. Geodesics of Schwarzchild |
HW 9 due HW 10 assigned |
| Thu 11/12/2026 |
L23. Stars in General Relativity/TOV equations |
paper review 4 due | |
| 13 | Tue 11/17/2026 |
L24. Black holes |
HW 10 due HW 11 assigned |
| Thu 11/19/2026 |
L25. Black holes |
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| 14 | 11/21/2026 -- 11/29/2026 | Fall Break | |
| 15 | Tue 12/01/2026 |
L26. Linearized Einstein's equations |
HW 11 due HW 12 assigned |
| Thu 12/03/2026 |
L27. Gravitational waves |
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| 16 | Tue 12/08/2026 |
L28. Cosmology |
HW 12 due |
| Thu 12/10/2026 | Reading Day | ||
| 12/15/2026 | Final Exam | ||