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ComprehensiveCourses Syllabus Nov2017

This document outlines the comprehensive examination requirements for the Department of Physics at IIT Kharagpur. Students must choose one of six subjects to be examined on: Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Electromagnetism and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics, or Atomic and Nuclear Physics. For the chosen subject, the exam will be two hours long and students must solve five of eight questions. A passing mark is 60%. Recommended textbooks are provided for each subject.

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Chitra Dolai
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88 views2 pages

ComprehensiveCourses Syllabus Nov2017

This document outlines the comprehensive examination requirements for the Department of Physics at IIT Kharagpur. Students must choose one of six subjects to be examined on: Mechanics, Quantum Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Electromagnetism and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics, or Atomic and Nuclear Physics. For the chosen subject, the exam will be two hours long and students must solve five of eight questions. A passing mark is 60%. Recommended textbooks are provided for each subject.

Uploaded by

Chitra Dolai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur

Comprehensive Examination
(To be effective from December 2017)

A student has to appear for the examination in any of the following two subjects. For each subject, the
examination will be of two hours duration, and candidates will typically be required to solve five out of eight
questions in a paper. Pass mark 60%.

I. Mechanics
1. Newtonian mechanics: Newton’s laws, Galilean transformations, conservation of energy, momentum
and angular momentum, collisions, harmonic oscillator, elementary dynamics of rigid bodies, inverse
square law forces and gravitation, central forces (general), systems of particles, special relativity
(elementary).
2. Lagrangian mechanics: Action principles, Euler Lagrange equations, Lagrangian and equations of
motion for various systems, rigid bodies, oscillations and normal modes.
3. Hamiltonian formulation: Hamiltonian and Hamilton’s equations of motion, phase space and phase
space trajectories, canonical transformations.
Recommended texts:
i) Mechanics (Berkeley Physics Course, Volume 1) for topics in ‘1’ (Chapters 3 to 11)
ii) Classical Mechanics by Goldstein, Poole and Safko (Chapters 1-6, 8,9)

II. Quantum Mechanics


1. Particle properties of waves and wave properties of particles, experiments (photoelectric effect, black
body radiation, Compton effect, Davisson-Germer, double slit, Frank-Hertz), Schrodinger equation,
Born’s probability interpretation, simple problems – particle in a box (1D, 2D, 3D), harmonic oscillator
(1D, 2D, 3D). step and barrier potentials in 1D, finite wells in 1D, 2D and 3D.
2. The Hydrogen atom problem–energy levels, wave functions (radial, angular), degeneracy, probability
densities, angular momentum, CG coefficients, transitions and selection rules.
3. Stern-Gerlach experiment and electron spin. Spin half particle in a magnetic field. Identical particles.
4. Approximation methods–first and second order time independent perturbation theory, variational
method, time dependent perturbation theory, Fermi golden rule. Scattering theory–partial wave
analysis, Born approximation, cross sections, Rutherford scattering.
Recommended texts:
i) Concepts of modern physics by A. Beiser (Chapters 2-7)
ii) Introduction to quantum mechanics by D. J Griffiths (Chapters 1-7,9,11)

III Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics


1. Thermodynamics - First Law, Second Law, Thermodynamic Potentials, Applications.
2. Classical Statistics - Maxwell Boltzmann Distribution, Microcanonical, Canonical and Grand canonical
ensembles, Applications.
3. Quantum Statistics - Quantum Ensembles, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac Statistics with Applications.
Recommended texts:
i) Introduction to Statistical Physics by Kerson Huang. (Chapters: 1 -3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14-17)
ii) Statistical Mechanics, R.K. Pathria. (Chapters : 1-8)

IV. Electromagnetism and Optics


1. Electrostatics: The Electric field, Divergence and Curl of Electrostatic field, Electric Potential, Work
and Energy in Electrostatics, Conductors
2. Magnetostatics: Lorentz Force Law, Biot-Savart’s law, The divergence and curl of B, Magnetic Vector
Potential

1
3. Electrodynamics: Electromotive Force, Faraday's Law of Induction, Maxwell's Equations,
Electromagnetic Waves in Vacuum, Electromagnetic Waves in Matter, Moving Charges in Vacuum
4. Optics:
Plane Waves and Refractive Index: Plane Wave Solutions to the Wave Equation, Index of Refraction,
The Lorentz Model of Dielectrics, Index of Refraction of a Conductor, Poynting’s Theorem.
Reflection and Refraction: Refraction at an Interface, The Fresnel Coefficients, Reflectance and
Transmittance, Brewster’s Angle, Total Internal Reflection.
Multiple Parallel Interfaces: Fabry-Perot Interferometer, Setup of a Fabry-Perot Instrument.
Propagation in Anisotropic Media: Constitutive Relation in Crystals, Plane Wave Propagation in
Crystals, Biaxial and Uniaxial Crystals, Refraction at a Uniaxial Crystal Surface.
Polarization of Light: Linear, Circular, and Elliptical Polarization, Jones Vectors for Representing
Polarization, Elliptically Polarized Light, Linear Polarizers and Jones Matrices.
Coherence Theory: Michelson Interferometer, Coherence Time and Fringe Visibility, Temporal
Coherence of Continuous Sources, Fourier Spectroscopy, Young’s Two-Slit Setup and Spatial
Coherence.
Diffraction: Huygens’ Principle as Formulated by Fresnel, Scalar Diffraction Theory, Fresnel
Approximation, Fraunhofer Approximation.
Recommended texts:
i) Introduction to electrodynamics by D. J. Griffiths (for 1-3)
ii) Classical Electrodynamics by J. D. Jackson (for 1-3)
iii) Optical Electronics by A. Ghatak and K. Thyagarajan (for 4)
iv) Optics by E. Hecht (for 4)

V. Condensed Matter Physics


1. Crystal structure, Reciprocal lattice, X-Ray Diffraction
2. Crystal Vibrations, Heat capacity
3. Free electron models, Nearly free electron model, Tight-binding approximation
4. Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors
5. Optical processes and excitons
6. Dielectric properties of insulators
7. Diamagnetism, Para-magnetism, Exchange interaction, Various spontaneous magnetic-orderings
8. Superconductivity: Phenomenology, GL Theory and some ideas of microscopic origin.
Recommended texts:
i) Solid State Physics: Ashcroft & Mermin
ii) Introduction to Solid State Physics: Charles Kittel

VI. Atomic and Nuclear Physics


1. Atomic Physics - Spectra of alkali atoms, vector atom model, LS and jj couplings, normal and
anomalous Zeeman effect, Stark effect. Symmetric and antisymmetric wave functions, Slater
determinants, Fine structure of spectral lines, nuclear spin and hyperfine structure, the interaction of
atoms with radiation.
2. Nuclear Physics - General properties: radius, mass, binding energy, nucleon separation energy, angular
momentum, parity , electromagnetic moments, excited states. Nuclear models: liquid drop model, semi-
empirical mass formula, mass parabolas, beta-stability line, collective rotations and vibrations,
independent particle shell model. Nuclear reactions: energetics, conservation laws, classification of
nuclear reactions, fusion and fission. Radioactive decay law, Alpha decay, Beta decay and Gamma
decay.
Recommended texts:
i) Physics of Atoms and Molecules: Bransden & Joachain, 2nd edition (Chapters: 1.7-1.9, 2.1-2.6, 3.1-3.4, 4, 5)
ii) Atomic Physics: C J Foot (Chapters: 1-7)
iii) K. S. Krane : (Chapters 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14)
iv) K. Heyde: (Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12)

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