July 2, 2014
Hans P. Paar
212C SYLLABUS
NEWS ITEMS, LAST ON TOP
I have received two late hand-ins that were graded and changed the grades that were submitted to the
Registrar by its 6/16/14 deadline. I will submit a grade change request for those two. It will take a few
weeks for those to show on the Registrar’s website.
The grade distribution of the class was: 1 A, 2 A-, 2 B+, 2 B, 2 B-, 0 C, and 1 D. The first two homework
assignments have a weight of 0.25 while the third assignment has a weight of 0.5 in calculating the final score.
The letter grades were assigned as: >90-100 A+, >80-90 A, >70-80 A-, >60-70 B+, >50-60 B, >40-50 B-,
>30-39 C, >20-20 D.
Have a nice Summer!
The graded solutions to homework sets #2 and #3 are available in Peggy McCoy’s office in CASS 331. It is
advisable to call her first at 534 4478 before making the trip. She can also tell you your grade for the course.
Regrade requests are welcome. Please see me for that.
Alex Breindel pointed out a typo in Problem 5b) and an error in 5e). I have corrected these. Apologies.
You may handin Problem 5 solutions by Monday 5 pm, the others are needed by Friday 6/12 in my CASS
mailbox for timely grading.
The takehome final has been posted on the 212C course website at
http://physics.ucsd.edu/∼hpaar/212C/212cthird.pdf
I may add another problem if I can think of a cute one so keep an eye on this posting.
My office hours Friday 5/30 are canceled because I will be out of town. Last chance to ask me questions
about Homework 2 is Thursday 5/29 after the lecture. Please leave your solutions to Homework 2 in my
CASS mailbox which is located in the corridor near my office.
The solutions to the first homework assignment have been posted on the 212C website at
http://physics.ucsd.edu/∼hpaar/212C/212CHW1solns.pdf
The second homework assignment has been posted on the 212C course website at
http://physics.ucsd.edu/∼hpaar/212C/212csecond.pdf
The first homework assignment has been posted on the 212C course website at
http://physics.ucsd.edu/∼hpaar/212C/212cfirst.pdf
Because Sebastian’s office hour is next Monday 4/28 I am moving the due date of the first homework set to
Tuesday 4/29 at the start of that morning’s lecture.
I need to move my office hour this Friday 4/25 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm to 4:00 - 6:00 pm.
Dr. Eric Michelsen (emichels@physics.ucsd.edu) will substitute for me in the lecture on Thursday 4/17.
Following my course outline, he will discuss blackbody radiation.
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COURSE ORGANZATION
Course instructor:
Hans P. Paar
hpaar@ucsd.edu (e-mail)
SERF 322A (office)
858 246 0405 (office phone)
Teaching assistant:
Sebastián Díaz
s1diaz@physics.ucsd.edu (e-mail)
MHA 4671 (office)
858 246 0546 (office phone)
Lectures:
Discussion session:
Tuesday-Thursday 11:15 am - 12:35 pm in SERF 383
None unless requested
Office hour:
Fridays 2:00 - 4:00 pm (instructor)
Mondays 3:00 - 5:00 pm (TA)
Grading:
Homework 50%
Takehome Final 50%
Course URL:
See Physics Department’s website
Course reserves:
Introduction to Advanced Quantum Physics by H.P. Paar
Advanced Quantum Mechanics by J.J. Sakurai
There will be four or five homework sets during the quarter. These will usually be handed out on Tuesdays
and be due Tuesday a week later. You are encouraged to work together on the homework sets. You may find
other 212C students working in the open area near my office, especially in the days prior to the due date of
the homework. You are welcome to join them and to ask me questions if you are stuck on a problem.
COURSE OUTLINE
Physics 212 is the place where all your hard work over the last several years comes to fruition. Important concepts from classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, statistical physics, and quantum physics
will be pulled together to discuss the the interaction of radiation and matter, selection rules, symmetries,
conservation laws, scattering, relativistic quantum physics, and more.
Unbelievably, when I first taught this course there was no single textbook suitable for the material in this
course so I ended up writing one. The book is divided into two parts. Part I covers the material listed below
while part II treats elementary Quantum Field Theory. If there is a desire among students to skip some
material of part I we could discuss some topics of part II instead.
COURSE CONTENT
I: Electromagnetic Radiation and Matter
A. Second Quantization of the Electromagnetic Field
B. Time-dependent Perturbation theory
C. Spontaneous emission
D. Black body radiation
E. Selection rules
II: Scattering
A. Cross-Section
B. Born approximation
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C. Photo-electric effect
D. Photon scattering
III: Symmetries and Conservation Laws
A. Introduction
B. Symmetry operator, degeneracy
C. Examples of continuous symmetry operators
D. Examples of discrete symmetry operators
IV: Relativistic Quantum Physics
A. Klein-Gordon equation
B. Dirac equation
C. Solutions of the Dirac equation, anti-particles
D. Non-relativistic limit
E. The Hydrogen atom re-revisited
V: Special Topics
A. Aharonov-Bohm effect
B. Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox
C. Measurements in Quantum Physics
D. Schrödinger’s cat
E. Hidden variables and Bell’s theorem
F. The watched pot
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