FKA121/FIM540 Computational Physics
Computational Physics is physics done by means of computational methods and
it has become an integral part of contemporary basic and applied physics.
The ability to exploit effectively the power offered by computers is essential
to a working physicist. The proper modelling of physical systems using
computational techniques is far more than blind number crunching and the
successful computational physicist draws on a balanced mix of analytically
soluble examples, physical intuition, and numerical work to solve problems
that are otherwise intractable.
Aim
The course is aimed at refining computational skills by providing direct
experience in using a computer to solve computational problems in physics.
A large number of different numerical techniques are applied to problems
taken from classical and quantum mechanics, and thermal physics. These problems
exemplify many basic and important concepts in physics which the students may
have encountered in other courses. Special emphasis is directed to computer
simulation methods, the Monte Carlo method and the molecular-dynamics
technique. The
course is designed to bridge the gap between undergraduate level physics
and computational research.
Organization
The different numerical techniques and the physical problems are presented in
a series of lectures. An important part in the course is the students own
activity in applying the methods and solving a set of exercises and homework
problems. Scheduled computer laboratory work is provided, with instructors
available for consultation.
The programming languages C will be used in the course.