Sitabhra Sinha
The goal of condensed matter physics is to understand how underlying
laws unfold themselves in objects of the natural world. (M. C. Marder)
Class Schedule: Tuesday (11-30 AM) and Thursday (9-30 AM)
14/1/03: Introduction
16/1/03: Types of bonds: covalent bonds
21/1/03: No class
23/1/03: Types of bonds: ionic, metallic and Van der Walls
28/1/03: Hydrogen bond and introduction to biological macromolecules
30/1/03: Structure and scattering: Introduction
4/2/03: Strcture and scattering: structure factor and correlation functions; structure of fluids
6/2/03: Computer simulation techniques in Condensed Matter Physics: Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo
11/2/03: Ordered Solids (Crystals): Two-dimensional Crystal symmetry
13/2/03: Dislocations in Crystals (Guest Lecture by Dr P P Sinha)
18/2/03: Crystals: Close Packing of Spheres and Three-dimensional Crystal Structures
20/2/03: Crystals: Three-dimensional Crystal Systems and Bravais Lattices
25/2/03: Crystals: Reciprocal Lattice
27/2/03: Crystals: Miller Indices, Brillouin Zones and the significance of the Convolution Theorem
4/3/03: Electronic Structure: Introduction to Models; Free Fermi Gas
6/3/03: Free Fermi Gas: Density of States, Ground State Energy, Low-temperature expansion
11/3/03: Special Lecture by G. I. Menon: Soft-Condensed Matter & Complex Fluids
13/3/03: Electron-electron interaction: Mott transition
18/3/03 and 23/3/03: Special Lecture by R. Anishetty: Protein Folding
27/3/03: Band theory: Kronig-Penney model, Bloch's Theorem, Ziman model, Coupled modes
29/3/03: Band theory: Effective mass, effective number, what makes a metal, Hall effect
1/4/03: Band theory: Fermi surface
3/4/03: Band theory: Fermi surface of nearly free electrons, electron and hole orbits, Tight-binding method, deHaas-van Alphen effect
8/4/03: Theory of deHaas-van Alphen effect, Landau levels
Lattice dynamics: vibrations of a classical monoatomic lattice
10/4/03: Lattice Dynamics: classical diatomic lattice; quantised lattice vibrations: Einstein & Debye theory
15/4/03: Phonons: neutron scattering
16/4/03: Phonon mean free path, Thermal expansion: breakdown of harmonic
approximation
Cooperative Phenomena: Introduction (difference between 1st order
and continuous transition), 1D Ising model : exact solution using
transfer matrix method
17/4/03: Special Lecture by T. Chakrabarty: Quantum Hall Effect
22/4/03: Helix-coil transition
23/4/03: Magnetic order, Larmor diamagnetism and van Vleck paramagnetism
24/4/03: Curie Paramagnetism; Magnetism of Free electron gas: Pauli paramagnetism, Landau diamagnetism and de Haas-van Alphen effect; Exchange interaction & perturbation theory
29/4/03: Heisenberg spin model; Neural networks : Hopfield model
30/4/03: Introduction to Superconductivity: zero resistance, Meissner effect, Type-I and Type-II superconductors, qualitative explanation of the BCS theory and Cooper pair formation, Tunneling
1/5/03: Special Lecture by G. Baskaran: Superconductivity
2/5/03: Phenomenological Theories of Superconductivity: Thermodynamics,
London Equations, Ginzburg-Landau Theory; Josephson Junction - analogy
with pendulum motion
Assignments
Sorry - no excuses for turning in assignments late!
Essential web resources for condensed matter physics:
Periodic Table
of the Elements (Los Alamos)
The Molecular Universe
: A treasure trove of information about structure of materials, surfaces
and interfaces, biological molecules, etc.
Crystallography
101: An Introductory Course by B. Rupp: An excellent X-ray crystallography
tutorial.
An Interactive Course
on Symmetry and Analysis of Crystal Structure by Diffraction