Physics 520: Condensed Matter Physics (Fall 2007)

Tuesday and Thursday,  1 - 2:30 PM @ Dennison 216

Instructor: Alexei V. Tkachenko

Office: West Hall 273; phone: (734)763-4154

office hours: 2-3PM every other Monday (before the HW due date + by appointment)

Syllabus

• CRYSTALS & PHONONS

Basic interactions in Condensed matter, classification of crystalline lattices, X-Ray scattering, lattice vibrations: acoustic and optical phonons.

• Non-interacting electrons in solids

Drude model, free Fermi gas,  electronic bands (weakly periodic and tight-binding models), metals & semiconductors, semi-classical transport.

• Introduction to many-body theory  

Screening, secondary quantization,  Fermi Liquid Theory, Hartree-Fock approximation.

• SUPERCONDUCTIVITY & SUPERFLUIDITY

Electron- phonon interactions, Cooper pairing, BCS theory and Bogolubov transformations, phenomenology of superconductivity.

Homework and Exam Information

Final Score = 50% * Homework + 20% * Midterm Exam + 30% * Final Exam

Homework 1 + solutions due on Thursday, September 27

Homework 2 + solutions due on Tuesday, October 9

Homework 3 + solutions  due on Tuesday, October 30

Midterm Exam + solutions  (open books & notes): Friday, November 2, 2-4 PM. Room: 4404 Randall

Homework 4 + solutions  due on Thursday, November 15

Homework 5 + solutions  due on Thursday, December 13

Final Exam Monday, December 17 @ 10AM.

Textbooks

Required: 

Recommended:

These are modern alternatives to Ashkroft/Mermin: