Phys 311/312 course details further below

homework links get added/updated every week on Thursday late afternoon/evening

Introduction to Modern Physics

these two courses are considered to be a sequence, so it does not make sense to join phys 312 without proper preparation by either phys 311 or some similar course taken somewhere else

Instructor: Peter Moeck (Ph.D., Dr. rer. nat.), Associate Professor of Physics, Office hours: room 404, Science Building II, Tuesday and Thursday: 12.00 – 12:30 pm (you can walk with me up to the office, right after class if you want)

e-mail: pmoeck@pdx.edu  , web: http://www.physics.pdx.edu/~pmoeck/index.html , Nano-Crystallography Group

telephone: 503 725 4227 (but I do prefer communicating per e-mail with my students and I don’t read attachments to e-mails as a matter of principle, (don’t send e-mail attachments to me, e.g. late homeworks, I do not open them as a matter of principle, late homeworks can however be send as attachments to our teaching assistant

Phys 312

same times and days of the week as the predecessor course Phys 311, but sometimes different location, so check out the PSU schedule, all course details as described above

 

My office hours as usual: Tuesday and Thursday: 12.00 – 12:30 pm, or per appointment

Our grader is Mrs. Doaa Teama, dteama@pdx.edu, it’s OK to send homeworks per email attachment directly to her. Her office hours are Monday 12:00 to 1:00 pm, Science Building 2, room 243, it’s good to write her an email in advance when you are coming, she also keeps the not collected homeworks

As usual, homeworks will be set each week on Thursday late afternoon/evening (except for the first week) at this webpage – (always 3 problems, each worth 5 points, they will taken out of the recommended books, but that does not mean you need to purchase these books)

homeworks will due the following Tuesday morning before class, you will get them back graded on the following Thursday, on the afternoon of the same day the solutions will be posted at  http://web.pdx.edu/~dteama

your homework assignments

HW1, HW2, HW3, HW4, HW5, HW6, HW7, HW8, HW9, 

extra assignment for credit: instead of the regular HW 5, due on Tuesday February 17, read the paper that describes a double slit interference experiment for electrons and answer these 4 questions, worth 20 points (click twice/trice to open the *.pdf file if necessary)

another extra assignment for credit: instead of the regular HW 7, due on March 3rd, read the Niels Bohr’s response to EPR (and bare in mind when you are reading it that he was really addressing Albert Einstein, …) and a short opinion piece by a more recent master in the field and answer these 6 questions, worth 30 points (click twice/trice to open the *.pdf file if necessary, if an empty page appears first, scroll down until you find the texts)

 

 

download lecture manuscripts below,

have a look at the recommended text books below, highly recommended text: Concepts of Modern Physics by A. Beiser, McGraw-Hill, any edition, second hand is also fine

 

towards the end of the course you may have to read and we will discuss a Review PAPER on just a few examples how quantum mechanics are going to be used in the near future – this may become another (extra) assignment for credit, but all have to agree on this

 

 

 

Phys 311  

your homework assignments

HW1, HW2, HW3, HW4, HW5, HW6, HW7, HW8, HW9, 

extra credit 5 problems on special relativity; due no later than a week after the midterm

Instructor: Peter Moeck (Ph.D., Dr. rer. nat.), Associate Professor of Physics, Office hours: room 404, Science Building II, Tuesday and Thursday: 12.00 – 12:30 pm (you can walk with me up to the office, right after class)

e-mail: pmoeck@pdx.edu  , web: http://www.physics.pdx.edu/~pmoeck/index.html , Nano-Crystallography Group

telephone: 503 725 4227 (but I do prefer communicating per e-mail with my students and I don’t read attachments to e-mails as a matter of principle, (don’t send e-mail attachments to me, e.g. late homeworks, I do not open them as a matter of principle, late homeworks can however be send as attachments to our teaching assistant

lecture manuscript for relativity can be downloaded/printed as *.doc  or *.pdf

 for an alternative approach to relativistic mechanics that does not use the concept of relativistic mass, about which Einstein said ”not good … no clear definition can be given”. It is better to introduce no other mass concept that the rest mass” click here, relativistic momentum is explained by the concept of relativistic velocity – the so called “One map two clock approach”  

lecture manuscript for chapter 2 (quantum theory of light) can be downloaded I word format here and here in pdf

lecture manuscript for Applied Modern Physics can be downloaded as *.doc or *.pdf

lecture manuscript for chapters 3 can be downloaded here

 

lecture manuscript for chapters 4 can be downloaded here

 

lecture manuscript for chapter 5 can be downloaded here

 

lecture manuscript for chapter 6 can be downloaded/printed here

 

lecture manuscript for chapter 6/tunneling phenomena can be downloaded here

 

the manuscript on tunneling/frustrated total internal reflection in electromagnetic and water waves can be downloaded here

 

As a special treat, you will hear Feynman giving a lecture out of the computer system in class, lecture manuscript for Feynman’s 1st lecture can be downloaded here in word and here in pdf

lecture manuscript for Feynman’s 2nd lecture can be downloaded here in word and here in pdf

 

watch Richard Feynman giving the The Douglas Robb Memorial Lectures at 
 
http://www.vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8 (streaming video for free) have some fun at http://physicsweb.org/article/world/16/9/2
 

part 1 of lecture manuscript for chapter 7 can be downloaded/printed here

 

part 2 of lecture manuscript for chapter 7 can be downloaded/printed here

 

part 3 of lecture manuscript for chapter 7 can be downloaded/printed here

 

lecture manuscript for chapter 8/multi electron atoms can be downloaded here

 

 

statistical physics part II can be downloaded/printed here , applications of statistical physics to electrical and thermal conductivity can be downloaded/printed here

 

lecture manuscript for chapter 9, part I (Beiser) Statistical Mechanics can be downloaded/printed here

 

here is the link in *.pdf, on superconductivity, I do not have it in word as a colleague has given it to me, the respective section in Beiser’s book is 10.9 and 10.10

 

Lecture manuscript for first part of chapter 13 is here

 
Lecture manuscript second part of chapter 13/14 is here

 

Lecture manuscript for superconductivity (in Beiser within the chapter on solid state physics) can be downloaded/printed here
 
If you didn’t get an A this time, do not worry so much, I didn’t get straight As all my live and neither did Heisenberg, if you want to know how badly he “screwed up” his final PhD exam, click here, nevertheless he was a professor at age 25 and one of the greatest physicists ever

 

possible extra credit – no decision yet

Read the Planck PAPER and answer he following questions: Which novel idea(s) did Planck introduce in the derivation of his black body radiation formula? In which § do(es) it (they) first show up? What are (is) the equation number(s) relating to this ( these) new idea(s)? Where did he get an estimate of h from? 

 

Mrs. Doaa Galal Teama <dteama@pdx.edu> will grade the homeworks and parts of the exams and post the homeworks of the previous week each Thursday in the late afternoon at about the time I set new homework problems for the following week http://web.pdx.edu/~dteama/

This is a two quarter course, everybody that enrolls only in the second term is assumed to have sufficient knowledge in Modern Physics form some other course !

It is best to take the two courses within one academic year as there will be frequent references back to the material covered in the first quarter throughout the second quarter !!

you better come to the lectures as it is the things I pay special emphasis to in the lectures that will be asked off you in the tests and exams, but I do not take a register

Homework credit contribute one third to your final course grade (you better do your homework as this will prepare you well for the tests and final exam, if you don’t at all you will get zero credit in this section!), Homeworks will be set on this webpage on Thursday late afternoon/evening. Homeworks have to be handed in on Tuesdays before the lecture, as their solutions will be posted soon after this but on the web (but no later than Wednesday late afternoon/evening). Credit is given for solution of even and odd problems, but don’t just copy the correct answer of an odd problem from the back of the textbook - that will give you no credit at all (even if the final result is correctly copied). The majority of problems will be of the “even type”. All homework solutions will be published on this webpage.

your final grade will be calculated from your individual scores:

                        33.3 % Home works

                        33.3 % Midterm exam, 5 or 6 week

                        33.4 % Final exam, all topics after 10 weeks,

the exam questions will frequently be similar to homework questions but it will be biased towards the tougher ones, so you better check very carefully what went wrong in the homeworks so that you do best in the exams, solutions of homeworks and midterm exam will be posted at http://www.physics.pdx.edu/~pmoeck/modern_physics.htm, solutions of final exams can be obtained personally at office hours.

These final grade percentages make sure you have 60 % of your grade made up before the final exam, so there is no need to get nervous at exam time as the final is unlikely to change much.

You get to keep your graded midterm exam, the final exams remain with me and you can look at them at office hours.

Final exam date: as set by PSU

highly recommended text: Concepts of Modern Physics by A. Beiser, McGraw-Hill, 6th edition, 2002, 542 pages, (quite easy going but pretty much to the point, a few bits and pieces missing, but a good thread throughout) you may get the paperback version over www.tatamcgrawhill.com or over www.amazon.com

other main texts:

Modern Physics by R.A. Serway, C.J. Moses, and Moyer 3rd edition, Saunders 2005, 600 pages without appendices and index, it’s pretty good, I served as one of the accuracy reviewers – if you are just coming for 311, that should be your book, if you do the whole sequence 311 and 312 I recommend Beiser

Modern Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Stephen T. Thornton and Andrew Rex, 3rd edition, Brooks/Cole, 2006, about 600 pages without appendices, (good and comprehensive most of the time, sometimes too much detail and not enough explanations of the more important concept)

Modern Physics for Scientist and Engineers by John R. Taylor, Chris D. Zafiratos, Michael A. Dubson, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2004, 720 pages, (many good examples in the text, good reviews of classical physics concepts from time to time, comprehensive atomic mass table, operators and expectation values first show up in the section on the hydrogen atoms, rather than in the section on quantum mechanics in one dimension, makes it a bit more difficult than perhaps necessary,)

Modern Physics by P.A. Tipler, R.A. Llewellen, 5th edition, Freeman, 2007 (a bit heavier but the classical text for the serious student, best on “postmodern” particle physics and cosmology, I served as one of the chapter/concept reviewers)

Modern Physics by J. Bernstein, P.M. Fishbane and S. Gasiorowicz, Prentice Hall, 2000. 602 pages, (pretty tough going at places as it is written by theorists; as it is a new text, sometimes comprehensive explanations are not provided in sufficient detail) 

Modern Physics by R.A. Serway and C.J. Moses, 1st edition, about 500 pages without index, by the way, don’t purchase the 2nd edition (Saunders, 1997) including MP Desktop software that is supposed to help the students and lots of optional text which kind of makes it difficult to follow the thread) – my 2002/2003 students didn’t like it much,

Modern Physics by Kenneth Krane, 2nd edition, Wiley, 1995, 581 pages, (least mathematical, more conceptual, frequent connections to classical physics, quite easy going, sometimes too simplistic for my liking, but a good book)

Modern Physics by Hans C. Ohanian, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 457 pages without appendices, (a bit week on solid state physics but otherwise OK, mathematical level is moderate)

Modern Physics from α to Z0 by James W. Rohlf, John Wiley and Sons. Inc., 1994, 569 pages plus some 60 pages appendix, good book for very dedicated students, but somewhat unconventional sequence in presenting the material, i.e. it starts with a survey of particles and forces and within some 20 pages arrives at Feynman diagrams and the fine structure constant, which other text may cover at page 200 or so in case of the fine structure constant (or not at all in case of Feynman diagrams). The Lorentz transformations, on the other hand, only come up after some 100 pages. Since the book is published 1995, the top quark is missing, …, but  the physics is sound. It is almost like a reference book rather than an undergraduate textbook. Perhaps there were no further editions because not many instructors adopted this text for their classes for students with mixed background?

a complementary book for worked problems: Schaum’s Outlines Modern Physics, by R. Gautreau and W. Savin, 2nd edition, Mc Graw-Hill, 1999

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a nice book that builds a bridge between introduction to modern physics and real quantum mechanics is A. I. M. Rae, Quantum Mechanics, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Ann Arbor, London, Tokyo, 5th edition, 2007

see how he starts:

 

“1. For every dynamical system there exist a wavefunction that is a continuous, square-integrable, single-valued function of the parameters of the system and of time, and from which all possible predictions about the physical properties of the system can be obtained.

 

2. Every dynamical variable may be represented by a hermitian operator whose eigenvalues represent the possible results of carrying out a measurement of the value of the dynamical variable. Immediately after such a measurement, the wavefunction of the system is identical to the eigenfunction corresponding to the eigenvalue obtained as a result of the measurement.

 

3. The operators representing the position and momentum of a particle are vector r and –i h-barÑ respectively. Operators representing other dynamical quantities bear the same functional relations to these, as do the corresponding classical quantities to the classical position and momentum variables.

 

4a. When a measurement of a dynamical variable represented by the hermitian operator Q is carried out on a system whose wavefunction is y, then the probability of the result being equal to a particular eigenvalue qn will be ½an2½, where y = å an fn are the eigenfunctions corresponding to the eigenvalues qn.”

 

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4b. In other words: When a measurement is made, the result is one of the eigenvalues of the operator associated with the measurement. As a result of the measurement, the wavefunction collapses into the corresponding eigenfunction. The probability of a particular outcome equals the squared modulus of the overlap between the wavefunction before and after the measurement.

 

From this follows mathematically that  Dx Dp ≥ ½ ½<[x, –i h-bar Ñ]>½= ½ h-bar (i.e. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle)

 

which corresponds physically to the fact that it is impossible to decide in a double slit experiment with a single particle through which hole the particle went without destroying the interference pattern of the corresponding quantum mechanical object (Feynman’s uncertainty principle”!

 

Between measurements, the development of the wavefunction with time is governed by time-dependent Schrödinger Equation and completely deterministic. Measurement generally leads to a “collapse” of the wavefunction into one of the eigenfunctions of the measurement operator. This collapse is not “caused by” or “associated with” by the Schrödinger Equation itself, but constitutes a “separate type” of time dependency that is associated with the act of measurement. So there are two different types of time dependency within the framework of quantum mechanics in the Copenhagen interpretation and this fact is know as the “quantum measurement problem”.

 

One of the strength of A. I. M. Rae’s text is that a whole chapter is dedicated to explain this problem in more detail. 

 

The basic postulates of quantum mechanics above are all that is really fundamental, the rest can be derived from these postulates, it’s that cool?

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free *.pdf files on:     general introduction to quantum mechanics,

                                    one-dimensional Schrödinger equation,

                                    three-dimensional Schrödinger equation, and 

                                    further details on the book where these chapters are from

                                    (it’s European university course stile, not expensive, no

                                    examples within the text, but pretty much to the point, if you like doing maths,

                                    this book very well complements the course)

 

What will be covered in Phys 311/312?

 

The revolutions in the concepts of physics in the early 20th century: special relativity, Introduction to quantum mechanics:  black-body radiation, energy quantum ideas, Bohr/Rutherford theory of the atom, Schrödinger equation, wave functions, electronic structure of atoms, periodic table, nuclear structure, radioactivity, fission and fusion, (+ very briefly: statistical physics and solid state physics). Prerequisite:  Ph 203, or Ph 213 and Mth 252, PH 312 is to be taken after PH 311 or a similar one quarter/one semester course elsewhere, it does make no sense at all to show up for phys 312 without proper introduction to the subject

 

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I use all of the text books above to prepare my lectures, probably I use Beiser, Serway et al., Thornton & Rex, Taylor et al., Krane, the most (possibly in this order). You may work with anyone of them or with previous editions of these books, the homework problems will be given on the webpage and may be from either the Beiser or the Serway text texts. So I am not forcing you of purchasing any one text, it’s up to you, you are responsible adults. If you are short of money, I can lend you a few current and older versions of these texts as long as supplies last, supplies are depleted a bit since some students never returned they lend from me.

further reading and real fun to read at bedtime and very useful to explain modern physics to your

grandparents and kids:

 

Sheldon L. Glashow, From Alchemy to Quarks, Brooks/Cole, 1994, this is the text the Nobel prize winning author uses to teach physics to non-science majors, so it is essentially non-mathematical, but concepts are very clearly expressed verbally My course gained a lot from this book as Glashow writes: “There is but one culture of which science is an essential part. Membership in the community of educated men and women demands competence in science and awareness of its history.”

 

Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Serway/Jewett, 6th edition, Volume 5, ISBN 0-534-40854-0 (there is now a 7th edition.)

paperback (it is volume 5 of the 5 volume set which has a different ISBN, covering  only chapters 39-46 so don’t purchase the

whole set if you already have a good undergraduate text on classical physics, Thomson Brooks/Cole (everything is a bit

simpler, just enough material for a one quarter course, if I have to give Phys 313 “Ideas in Modern Physics”, 

http://www.physics.pdx.edu/course_info.htm#300  - that will be the text I am going to use, I served as a chapter reviewer for this text)

 

Introduction to Quantum mechanics in Chemistry, Materials Science, and Biology, by S. M. Blinder, Elsevier 2004, only about $40 but pretty good if you are aiming in a career in these professions, not so much use for a prospective physicist

 

Wolfgang Rindler, Relativity, Special, General and Cosmological, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2006

 

Physics for Poets, 5th edition, McGraw Hill, 2003, by Robert H. March (which is at the mathematical level that was taught at Moslem

universities from Toledo to Timbuktu before the fourteenth century, i.e. Algebra no calculus)

 

In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat, Quantum Physics and Reality, John Gribbin, paperback, parallel worlds and all the rest of it, pretty nice if you don’t like the COPENHAGEN interpretation of quantum mechanics for aesthetical or philosophical reasons

 

and Physics and Philosophy, the revolution in modern science by W. Heisenberg, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, a bit heavier although without any mathematics as he gets philosophical

 

go also to http://www.whfreeman.com/modphysics/INDEX.HTM#top for lots of interesting modern physics stuff  by Tippler et al., to be downloaded as *.pdf

 

an interesting paper, partly philosophical/partly “quantum physically”, from a Visiting Professor at Portland State and author of widely read books on quantum mechanics: A new interpretation on Quantum Mechanics. I am in no position to judge if all the claims in this paper are correct, but have a go yourself, your opinion is as valuable as mine.

 

Some students - frequently those with strong religious beliefs - don’t like the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics according to the so called Copenhagen School (Bohr, Born, Heisenberg). Well there may or may not be an alternative in the form of Bohm’s version of quantum mechanics, and here is a link to an article published in Scientific America that may serve as a starting point in exploring Bohm’s version of quantum mechanics. Sure this article is a bit polemic as its author wants to push his book, but it concedes that all predictions of quantum mechanics are borne out in experiments. Interestingly, Bohm’s version makes exactly the same prediction and can thus also claim to be in agreement with all of the experimental evidence - sure the price is also an uncertainty principle. Only in Bohm’s version the uncertainty principle takes a different form, so in effect Bohm’s version of quantum mechanics proofs nothing beyond the point that one actually does not need to stick to the Copenhagen Interpretation in order to make progress in quantum mechanics.  (Bohm’s theory builds on de Broglie’s work and is a so called hidden variable theory. A new idea is the “quantum potential” that in a sense makes the difference between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics, but is a concept closer to Aristotle than to Newton, … so there are some loose ends as well.)

 

 

your homework questions will be selected from the Beiser text, the Serway text, and possibly the Thornton and Rex text. The respective problems will be spell out above in the homework section

 

grading your homeworks and midterm exams is the job of the teaching assistant

 

for discussion on the homework problems and their grading you have to approach the teaching assistant  first, only if you can’t resolve the matter with her will I talk to you about them. Similarly, only if the teaching assistant agrees will your homework score be changed, do not postpone issues with her or him up to the last week!

have a look here at THE PAPER with which it all started, a complete version of this paper is also available for the serious student

 

 

 

Richard P. Feynman in chapter 1 of “QED, the strange theory of light and matter”

 

“… I’d like to talk a little bit about understanding. When we have a lecture, there are many reasons why you might not understand the speaker. One is, his language is bad – he doesn’t say what he means to say, or he says it upside down – and it’s hard to understand. That’s a rather trivial matter, and I’ll try my best to avoid too much of my New York (German – my insertion) accent.

 

Another possibility, especially if the lecturer is a physicist, is that he uses ordinary words in a funny way. Physicist often use ordinary words as “work” or “action” or “energy” or even, as you shall see, “light” for some technical purpose. Thus, when I talk about “work” in physics, I don’t mean the same thing as when I talk about “work” on the street. During this lecture I might use one of those words without noticing that it is being used in this unusual way. I’ll try my best to catch myself – that’s my job – but it is an error that is easy to make.

 

The next reason that you might think you do not understand what I am telling you is, while I am describing to you how Nature works, you won’t understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that. I can’t explain why Nature behaves in this peculiar way.

 

Finally, there is this possibility: after I tell you something, you just can’t believe it. You can’t accept it. You don’t like it. A little screen comes down and you don’t listen anymore, I’m going to describe to you how Nature is – and if you don’t like it, that’s going to get in the way of your understanding it. It’s a problem that physicists have learned to deal with: They’ve learned to realize that whether they like a theory of they don’t like a theory is not the essential question. Rather, it is whether or not the theory gives predictions that agree with experiment. It is not a question of whether a theory is philosophical delightful, or easy to understand, or perfectly reasonable form the point of view of common sense. The theory of quantum electrodynamics describes nature as absurd form the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. …”

 

Phys 311

 

Homework Problems ( Beiser, Serway at al., Thornton/Rex in different directories): the respective homework pages are accessible here, you just pick the right problem number from the right chapter and solve them, hand them in each week Tuesday before class, if you can’t make it to class that day send them with the same deadline as email attachment to Doaa dteama@pdx.edu  (not to me I don’t open attachments anyhow) with a brief excuse, if you are past the deadline you really need a good excuse that can be backed up one way or another, if your excuse is too “strange”, I’ll ask the class what they think – if your homework should still be graded or not. DEAL? Each week 3 problems, each of them carries 5 points!

 

 

from the author’s of Physics for Poets, mentioned above, after word: To be human is to wonder … The baby is displayed behind glass, well-scrubbed, and one need not know about the delivery room (it is soundproofed). Thus we are spared the agony of wonder, which is not unlike love and makes as little (or as much) sense as love. 

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an after thought