Teaching

Spring 2008: Phyx 371-0 Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

Location and hours

Classes: MWF 1PM, Room L 158

Office Hours: M 3:30-4:30PM, Room F 323

Topics

This course is focused on nonlinear oscillators, fractals, chaos in dissipative systems, chaos in conservative systems, transient chaos, chaotic scattering, and applications.

Main references

  1. [1] T. Tel and M. Gruiz, Chaotic Dynamics: An Introduction Based on Classical Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
  2. [2] Selection of seminal papers.

Grading

Course highlights

  1. G. Weil's project: Phase Space of Hamiltonian Systems
  2. M. Bierbaum's project: Chaotic Advection in 2D Periodic Flows
  3. E. Knoff's project: Quantum vs. Classical Chaos
  4. L. Mayr's project: Wada Fractals
  5. I. Bichachi's project: Demonstration of Chaotic Scattering
  6. M. Goss's project: Magnetic Pendulum
  7. Z. Nicolaou's project: Mechanical Networks

Winter 2008: Phyx 339-1 Quantum Mechanics

Location and hours

Classes: MWF 10AM, Room MG 28

Discussions: M 4PM, Room L 150

Office hours: W 1:30-2:30PM, Room F 323

Grader

Joo Sang Lee (Office F 317)

Topics

-- Wave function - Text book, Chapter 1

-- Time-independent Schrödinger equation - Text book, Chapter 2

-- Quantum mechanics formalism - Text book, Chapter 3

-- Systems of identical particles - Text book, Chapter 5

-- Time-independent perturbation theory - Text book, Sections 6.1-6.2

Text book

  1. [1] D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 2nd Edition (Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005).

Grading

Spring 2007: Phyx 420-0 Statistical Physics

Location and hours

Classes: Room L 168, TTh (12:30-2:00PM)

Office Hours: Room F 323, Wed (2:00-3:00PM)

Description of the course

This is an advanced course in statistical physics, which emphasizes on critical phenomena, renormalization theory, and nonequilibrium phase transitions. Additional topics will include applications to: complex systems, chaos in dynamical systems, and processes relevant to biological physics.

Main references

  1. [1] C. Garrod, Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics (Oxford University Press, 1995).
  2. [2] L. E. Reichl, A Modern Course in Statistical Physics (Wiley, 1998).
  3. [3] E. M. Lifshitz and L. D. Landau, Statistical Physics (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1984).

Reading

  1. [1] H. J. Jensen, Self-organized Criticality: Emergent Complex Behavior in Physical and Biological Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
  2. [2] D. Sornette, Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Self-organization and Disorder (Springer, 2004).

Grading

Class presentations

  1. Self-organized criticality

Projects

  1. Motion inside bacterial cytoplasm
  2. Geometric brownian motion
  3. DNA inter-motif distribution

Fall 2006: Phyx 465-0 Adv Topics in Nonlinear Dynamics

Location and hours

Discussions: Room LG 62, Wed (9:50AM)

Description of the course

Strange attractors and fractal dimensions; dynamical properties of chaotic systems; nonattracting chaotic sets; chaos in Hamiltonian systems; quantum chaos; relativistic chaos.

Main references

  1. [1] Edward Ott, Chaos in Dynamical Systems (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2002).
  2. [2] Selection of recent papers.

Spring 2006: Phyx 420-0 Statistical Physics

Location and hours

Classes: Room M 166, Mon, Wed, Fri (1:00-2:00PM)

Office Hours: Room F 323, Tue (12:00-2:00PM)

Description of the course

Correlation functions, measurement, and response theory. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and phase transitions, Landau theory of second-order phase transitions, fluctuations, scaling theory, and critical phenomena. Additional topics will include applications to: complex networks, chaos in dynamical systems, and processes relevant to biological physics.

Main references

  1. [1] Claude Garrod, Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1995).
  2. [2] Kerson Huang, Statistical Mechanics (Wiley, New York, 1987).
  3. [3] Shang-Keng Ma, Statistical Mechanics (World Scientific, Singapore, 1985).
  4. [4] Linda E. Reichl, A Modern Course in Statistical Physics (Wiley, New York, 1998).

Grading

Course highlights

  1. R. Dean Malmgren's project: Periodic Poisson Processes
  2. M. Hestin's project: Species Competition in Chaotic Flows
  3. A. Jinich's project: Correlation-based Modeling of Microbial Growth
  4. P. Maksym and W.-C. Huang' project: Entropy in Systems with Long-Range Interactions
  5. L. Mier Y Teran Romero's project: Networks of Reaction-Diffusion Equations
  6. M. Stringer's project: Correlations in Citation Networks
  7. X. Wu and S. L. Soh's project: Hamiltonian Systems with Typical Dynamics