PY2T10

Module PY2T10 Classical Physics for Theoretical Physics

Cohort: SF Theoretical Physics

Credits: 10

Duration: Michaelmas Term, 12 lectures

This module combines for elements of classical physics as follows:

Oscillations

Lecturer: Professor J. McGilp

Description:
Review of simple harmonic motion. Forced and damped oscillations. Resonance. Two coupled oscillators, modes and normal coordinates. Many coupled oscillators. Transition to continuous systems. Waves. Nonlinear behaviour. Anharmonic behaviour.

Lecture Notes: Oscillations

Physical Optics

Lecturer: Professor E. McCabe

Description:
Introduction: light as a wave. Plane waves. Light in matter: electron oscillator for a dielectric. Refractive index and dispersion. Optical properties of metals. Polarisation of light. Linear, circular and elliptical polarisation. Birefringence in uniaxial crystals. Polarisation components. Polarisation by reflection, scattering. Retarders and analysis of polarised light. Angular momentum of the photon. Interference and coherence - complex degree of coherence. Visibility of fringes, temporal coherence and spectral bandwidth, spatial coherence. Interference- wavefront and amplitude splitting interferometers, types and location of fringes, and applications of interferometry. Multiple beam interference. Fabry-Perot interferometer. Diffraction - near-field and far-field diffraction.

Lecture Notes: Physical Optics

Thermodynamics

Lecturer: Professor G. Cross

Description:
First law of thermodynamics. Internal energy, heat and work. Reversible and irreversible processes. Specific heat. Second law of thermodynamics. Heat engines, Carnot cycles. Entropy. Probability and disorder. Combined first and second laws. Central equation. H, F, G. Maxwell's relations. Energy equations. Cooling processes. Joule-Kelvin effect. Third law of thermodynamics. Van der Waals model for real gases.

Electricity and Magnetism

Lecturer: Professor C. Patterson

Description: Coulomb's and Gauss' Laws; dipoles and polarisation; electric susceptibility and displacement vector; polar dielectrics and Langevin analysis; potential and electric energy density; Biot-Savart and Ampere's Laws; magnetic dipole and magnetisation; H vector; vector potential; magnetic energy density; dia, para and ferro magnetism; Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction; magnetoelectric induction; Maxwell's equations.