Phys 8712.001

PHYSICS 8712 - SOLID STATE PHYSICS
Alex Kamenev; 428 Physics; 6-0724; kamenev@physics.umn.edu
Office Hours: Friday 3:30 - 5 p.m.; otherwise by appointment

The course meets Tues and Thurs, 16:40 - 17:55, in Physics 157.

This course provides an advanced treatment of the fundamentals of solid
state physics. It is intended primarily for graduate students in physics
and related fields who have completed a previous course at the level of
Kittel, /Solid State Physics,/ or the equivalent. Completion of an advanced
undergraduate course in statistical mechanics is assumed. I will assume
that you know quantum mechanics at the level of Merzbacher or the
equivalent. The primary goal of the course is to prepare students for
research in condensed matter physics and materials science.

I shall not follow any book in details. The closest one is M.Tinkham's
/Introduction to Superconductivity./ As of last year one could find very good deals on amazon.com

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Problem sets will be assigned weekly and will be due in class or in my mailbox by 4:40 on Thurs. As of now, a grader is not assigned to the course. I reserve the right to select a problem randomly for grading.

You are expected to work on problem sets /primarily on your own./ I do
encourage you to discuss the problems with each other /after/ you have made a serious effort to solve them on your own.

2. Attendance at the Condensed Matter Sack Lunch Seminar (Tues. 12:20 -1:10). This is recommended, but not required.

TOPICS:

Second Quantization. Ideal Fermi and Bose gases.
Density of states.

k-space, densities of states, periodic potentials
Structure and symmetry: Crystal lattices, reciprocal space, symmetry
Scattering theory; x-ray diffraction from crystals
Correlation functions and structure factors: liquids and liquid crystals; thin-film diffraction

Electrons in a periodic potential
Fermi surface
Electronic structure - Tight binding

Fermi-Liquid theory. Screening. Hartree-Fock theory.

Phonons in metal. Inelastic neutron scattering.
Phonons dispersion.
Electron-phonon interactions

Superfluidity.

Superconductivity.

Quantum Magnetism.