Tutorial on monday: bring a laptop

Monday 11am
This will be a general question and answer, problem solving session.
Bring assignment 1.
Bring a laptop with a working version of solid state simulations.

Final timetable

Class times will be
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 11am-noon
Wednesday 1-2pm

Slides for Drude lectures

Here is the current version of the slides. Almost all of it is in Ashcroft and Mermin, except some of the experimental data.

Slides for lecture on 10 key points

In tomorrow's lecture I will highlight 10 key ideas at the heart of condensed matter physics.
Here are the slides.

If there is time I will then start to introduce the Drude model. Reading chapter 1 of Ashcroft an Mermin is highly desirable.

Possible change of times

Hey everyone, sorry to be 'that guy', but I was wondering if anyone would object to moving the monday and wednesday 2pm classes to 1pm? I have tutes to give at 2pm on each day, so won't be able to make it then. I spoke to Ross about it and he said if nobody object we could just have the classes an hour earlier. But if it messes anyone else over, then don't worry about it.

Learning from your pre-test

I have marked all the pre-tests. You are welcome to come by my office and pick up your marked script.

A few things you should do for future exams, if you don't want to lose marks:

• Keep track of physical units at each stage of a calculation involving numerical values.
• Make sure the axes of a graph are clearly labelled and have a scale. 
• If you don't know the answer, don't waffle on as if you do.

Pre-test

Here is a copy of the pre-test done today.
The goal was to see if you have some of the necessary background skills and knowledge required for this course.
If you struggled in the exam today, but think you actually know the material, I suggest you do some quick revision and complete the exam again. You can hand me your solutions by 11am tomorrow.

Assignment 1: due March 7

A copy of the first assignment is here.
It involves looking at some exercises using the drude program in Solid State Simulations [you can download the program here].
Here is a scan of some of Ch. 6 of the book (also, the library has 4 copies)

Key things in QM and SM to review

This course relies heavily on some basic ideas in quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. If you want a good place to review you could look at the following two sections in the nice PHYS3020 text by Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics

Appendix A Elements of Quantum Mechanics
Section 7.3 Degenerate Fermi gases

Proposed new meeting times

As we discussed today


monday 2-3pm
tuesday 11am-noon
wednesday 11am-noon
wednesday 2-3pm

Welcome to the course

A few important details.

This course blog will be the main means of communication between staff and students outside class meetings.

All the course meetings will be in the Interaction room (424) in the Physics Annex (building 6).

The first meeting is monday at 2pm.

You should start reading the text, Solid State Physics by Aschroft and Mermin. There are multiple copies in the library. You might consider buying it or the book by Marder.

You should also download the computer program Solid State Simulations and familiarise yourself with it since there will be many class exercises that use it.

Read the course profile carefully.

An outline of the key ideas for the first two weeks are here.