Physics 220 : General Information
| Tentative Plan for Physics 220 |
| Lectures |
| The plan as outlined in the Lecture Notes page describes a 17 week course covering the theory of discrete and continuous groups. Unfortunately, we only have 10 weeks. Our focus will be on group theory applied to condensed matter physics. |
| Course Texts |
| Chapter 0 of the Lecture Notes lists several useful textbooks. The official course texts are Lax, Symmetry Principles in Solid State and Molecular Physics and Gilmore, Lie Groups, Physics, and Geometry. I recommend you buy Lax's book but hold off on Gilmore unless you intend to do your own independent study on Lie groups. I very much recommend Tony Zee's Group Theory in a Nutshell for Physicists, which unfortunately was published too late to be included as a course text. |
| Grading |
I intend on assigning five or six problem sets. There will be a take-home final at the end of the course. I will use the following formula to determine grades: 40% HW, 50% final, 10% intangibles. I expect your homework to be neat, legible, with multiple pages stapled. Failure to meet these expectations could result in tragic consequences. |