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.