Handbook

PREREQUISITE: PHS3101 or PHS3031

Recommended: PHS2081

PROHIBITION: PHS3031 and PHS3042 completed together

This unit comprises of two theory sub-units: Statistical physics and Condensed matter physics.
Both sub-units will be delivered in 30 hours of workshops.
You will be expected to engage with pre-workshop content available on Moodle before each workshop.
Pre-workshop content will be a mix of short videos, readings from the prescribed and recommended texts, and other resources.

The workshops themselves are a blend of lecturer-led discussion, group discussion and problem solving sessions.
Areas of difficulty are highlighted in class discussions, and resolved via interaction with peers and instructors.
In-session activities include applying skills and knowledge to computer-based modelling of problems, and working through worksheet problems using appropriate mathematical methods.
Solutions to worksheets will be posted after each workshop.

Assignments in the form of regular problem sets will be distributed for each sub-unit, highlighting consequences of the theory and giving students practice in applying it.
The standard of these assignments is largely typical of that required in the examinations.
Solutions to problems and assignments will be posted to Moodle at appropriate times during semester, enabling students to check their progress continuously.

• Applies to all offerings

The workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours spread across the semester (approximately 12 hours per week) - approximately an even mixture of attendance at scheduled activities and self-scheduled study time. Learning activities comprise a mixture of instructor directed, peer-directed and self-directed learning, which includes face-to-face and online engagement.

Daniel V Schroeder, An introduction to Thermal Physics , Addison-Welsey (2001). ISBN-13: 978-0201380279 ISBN-10: 9780201380279.

This is a prescribed text for the unit and you are expected to have access to a copy. Selected readings from the text will be available on Moodle, however these are not sufficient to cover all the syllabus, and do not include the numerous valuable exercises in the text.

Kittel & Kroemer, Thermal Physics (2nd revised ed.), W.H. Freeman (1980). (This book largely overlaps with Schroeder's Introduction to Thermal Physics, although having access to both is useful.)

Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics (8th ed.), Wiley (2004).

Marder, Condensed Matter Physics (2nd ed.), Wiley (2004).