Latest update: June 8, 2005
http://fy.chalmers.se/~kinaret/cmp.html

Condensed Matter Physics

Condensed Matter Physics: 5.0p, lp III and lp IV
Examinator: Dr. Jari Kinaret Department of Applied Physics

New information


The final exam has been graded. The solutions and results have been posted at my office (results indexed by the last four digits of your person number).
Final review slides are here (pdf).

General information regarding the course

Condensed matter physics is the largest sub-discipline of physics and, depending on the measure, covers nearly a half of the entire field - for instance, in Gothenburg 16 of the 27 research groups listed at the Department of Physics home page are engaged in research in condensed matter. In this course we will discuss several aspects of condensed matter physics focusing on the properties of electrons in metals. It is assumed that you have taken an introductory course on condensed matter physics, and are familiar with the basics of the topic such as the existence of crystals etc. (for a refresher you may wish to click here; if, instead, you forgot what the simplest chemical constituents of a crystal are, you may click here).

The properties of a system of a large number of particles - in our case, electrons - are determined by two main aspects: the system's ground state and its elementary excitations. From an experimental point of view the ground state is usually inert and information on the system's properties can only be obtained by studying how it responds to external stimuli. This response is governed by the elementary excitations. Experimentally, therefore, the excitations are primary and the ground state is secondary. From the point of view of theory the situation is usually reversed: in order to analyze the elementary excitations we must know the system's ground state since, fundamentally, an excited state is defined through its deviation from the ground state.

We will encounter that ordinary metals can give rise to a large number of different ground states which support an even larger number of excitations. Within the framework of this course we will familiarize ourselves with many of the phenomena that occur in macroscopic metals and discuss them in terms of phonons, photons, plasmons, polaritons, polarons, and other elementary excitations.

Contact information

Lecturer:
Tutor:

Examination

The examination consists of two written exams and a set of home problems. The written examinations account for 35% of the total grade each and the home problems account for the remaining 30%. No material is allowed at the written examinations which will to a great extent be based on review questions that will be handed during the course (see link below). The home problems are to be returned to the course assistant for grading; detailed instructions will be given later.

Schedule

In LP3, Tuesdays at 13.15-15.00 and Thursdays at 10.00-11.45 in FL51
In LP 4, Mondays at 10.00-11.45 in FL51

Material

We will use two books in parallel:
  1. Michael P. Marder (PM): Condensed Matter Physics
  2. Neil W. Ashcroft and N. David Mermin (AM): Solid State Physics
Nearly all material will be found in both books but sometimes either book may need to be complemented by lecture notes. The difference between the books is essentially that the first one is quite new and includes more modern developments but has not yet been thoroughly tested in classroom use, while the second one is older and has been used in this and many other similar courses worldwide over two decades.

Syllabus

The exam dates are preliminary. There is a good chance that I will miss a lecture in LP4, and the dates will be affected accordingly.

Lecture Time Place Reading
Introduction. Solids. 18.1. FL51 AM 19, PM 11
Free electron gas. 20.1. FL51 AM 2, PM 6
Crystals. 25.1. FL51 AM 4-5, PM 2-3
Independent electron model. 27.1. FL51 AM 8, PM 7
Band structure. 1.2. FL51 AM 9-10, PM 8
Band structure. 3.2. FL51 AM 11, PM 9-10
Semiclassical electron dynamics. 10.2. FL51 AM 12-13, PM 16
Semiclassical electron dynamics. 17.2. FL51 AM 12-14, PM 16-17
Semiclassical electron dynamics. 22.2. FL51 AM 16-17, PM 17-18
Microscopic conductance phenomena. 24.2. FL51 PM 18
Review: independent electrons. 10.3. FL51 AM 1-17 (partly), PM 2-18 (partly)
Midterm exam: independent electrons. 15.3. FL61 AM 1-17 (partly), PM 2-18 (partly)
Screening. Plasma oscillations. 3.3. FL51 AM 1,17, PM 9,20,23
Phonons. 8.3. FL51 AM 21-23, PM 13
Phonons, polarons, polaritons, and excitons. 10.3. FL51 AM 21-23, 30, 27, PM 13, 22, 21
Effects of phonons, magnetism. 4.4. FL51 AM 32, PM 25-26
Magnetism. 11.4. FL51 AM 31-32, PM 25-26
Magnetic order. 18.4. FL51 AM 32-33, PM 24,26
Superconductivity. 25.4. FL51 AM 34, PM 27
Review: beyond independent electrons. 9.5. FL51 AM 17-34 (partly), PM 9-27 (partly)
Final exam: beyond independent electrons. 16.5. Kollektorn

Home problems

A separate page with information on home problems can be found here.

Review questions

A continuously updated list of review questions is available here. Latest update on May 18, 2004.

Review

Review of the first half of the course is available here.
Clarification: on the lecture I mentioned that the mathematical content of the mid-term exam is very limited. Some of the published review questions that require quantitative analysis ("Prove", "Show" etc.) may well appear in the exam. The mathematical content of questions not directly from the review list is very limited.
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