Condensed Matter Physics I
PHYS 502, Fall
2024
IMPORTANT: This page is obsolete and will no longer be
updated.
For the current course info please visit UBC Canvas.
Instructor: Prof. M. Franz
[BRIM 461B, franz(at)phas(dot)ubc(dot)ca]
Lectures: Mo & We
15:00-16:30 in Henn 301
Office hours: Mo 17:00-18:00 and by appointment
Course TA:
Vedangi Pathak, [BRIM 461C, vedangi(at)phas(dot)ubc(dot)ca
]
Office
hours: Tue 16:00-17:00 and by
appointment
Textbook (available in the bookstore):
- "Solid State Physics"
by Ashcroft & Mermin
Other useful texts (placed
on reserve in the library):
- "Quantum Theory of Solids", 2nd Revised Edition by Charles Kittel
- "Advanced Solid State Physics" by Phillips
- "A Quantum Approach to Condensed Matter Physics" by Taylor
& Heinonen
- "Condensed Matter Physics" by Marder
Grades will be determined based on biweekly assignments,
midterm, and the final exam (30/30/40).
Course announcements:
- First lecture will take place on Monday, Sept. 9.
- IMPORTANT: This page is
obsolete and will no longer be updated.
- For the current course info please visit UBC Canvas
home page.
Lecture notes:
Assignments:
*This can be viewed as a "test assignment". If you can solve
it without great difficulty you are ready for this course. If not,
then you should take PHYS 474 first.
Working out the assignments is perhaps the single most important
aspect of this course, absolutely essential for your understanding
of the material. In order to
receive credit assignments must be handed in by the end of the
lecture on the due date. If you foresee a serious conflict
that might prevent you from completing the problems by the due date
please let me know ahead of time.
I will consider extending the due date if the conflict affects
several students in the class. In fairness to other students
who completed the assignment on time last minute requests for an
extension will not be granted.
Group discussion of Problem Sets is
encouraged, but the solutions you hand in must be your own
work. This means you should not be looking at anybody's
notes or assignment while writing up your solutions and you
should not share your completed Problem Set with anybody
else. UBC takes
academic misconduct (this includes copying of homework,
cheating on exams and plagiarism) very seriously, and the
penalties are stiff. Please check pages 48-49 and 54-55 of the
calendar for official University regulations.
Course outline:
This course provides a graduate-level introduction to the
fundamental concepts of condensed matter physics. It
is assumed that students are familiar with the basic concepts of
solid state physics (e.g. crystalline lattices,
Bloch bands, Drude model etc.) as covered in a typical undergraduate
solid state course such as UBC's PHYS 474. In addition, working
knowledge of quantum mechanics, basic statistical physics and
thermodynamics will be assumed.
- Introduction: Solids as interacting quantum many-body systems
- Basic Hamiltonian, CM "theory of everything"
- Born-Oppenheimer approximation
- Second quantization for fermions and bosons
- Electrons in solids
- Free electron gas model, Jellium
- Interactions, Hartree-Fock approximation
- Random phase approximation, screening
- Boson systems
- Bogoliubov theory of helium
- Phonons
- Magnons
- Electrons in a periodic potential
- Bloch theorem
- Nearly free and tight binding approximations
- Dynamics of Bloch electrons, metals vs. insulators
- Outline of the Density functional theory
- Semiclassical theory of conduction in metals
- Non-equilibrium distribution function
- Relaxation time approximation
- Electrical and thermal conductivity, thermoelectric effects
- Effects of magnetic fields
- Electron-phonon interactions
- The Frolich Hamiltonian
- Phonon frequencies and Kohn anomaly, Peierls transition
- Polarons and mass enhancement
- Elements of superconductivity
- Origin of the attractive interaction between electrons
- BCS Hamiltonian, pairing instability, Bogoliubov
transformation
- Transition temperature, energy gap, ground state
wavefunction
- Meissner effect, tunneling experiments, flux quantization
and the Josephson effect
- Depending
on time and student interest some of the following additional
topics may be discussed:
- Introduction to mesoscopic physics
- Quantum Hall effect (integer and fractional)
- Kondo effect
- Basic one-dimensional physics, Luttinger liquids,
bosonization