Prerequisites: One of Phys 312, Math 257, Math 316 and one of Phys 210, Eosc 211, Cpsc 111, Apsc 160.

This course is a quantitative treatment of physical problems through numerical simulation. Fundamentals of numerical analysis for continuum problems will be presented. Techniques for solution of linear and nonlinear systems, ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations and stochastic problems will be illustrated and applied to problems from a variety of fields in physics. This course will be presented in C/C++.

Topics:

Numerical precision and causes of loss of precision

Numerical differentiation and ordinary differential equations with applications in classical mechanics, chaotic systems and quantum mechanics

Partial differential equations with applications in electrostatics and waves

Random systems and stochastic methods with applications in random walks, diffusion and quantum mechanics