PHZ3400 Syllabus

Class Information

• Lectures: M W F 12:20-1:10pm; HCB 317

• Professor: Vladimir Dobrosavljevic, 611 Keen Building or A315 MagLab, 644-9755 or 644-5693, vlad@magnet.fsu.edu

• Office hours: Friday 11-12am, or by appointment. You are also welcome to contact me whenever you have questions.

• Prerequisite: Calculus-based General Physics (PHY 2048 and 2049), and Modern Physics (PHY3101).

Description

This is an upper-level undergraduate course, with the goal to explain the concepts of modern Condensed Matter Physics. The emphasis of the courses is equally on conceptual grasp of the subject as well as on problem solving. It will cover structural, thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of both solids and some "soft" materials (e.g. liquid crystals, bio-materials, etc). It will describe the physics foundation of many modern technologies that have transformed our daily life, discoveries which would not exist without our deep understanding of "Quantum Magic".

The key component of this course is the collaborative student contribution to the course Wiki-textbook. Each team of students is responsible for BOTH writing the assigned chapter AND editing chapters of others. Instead of writing traditional-style term papers, students will produce Wiki-contributions to various special topics, and then use thee pages to present what they discovered to the class. Cross-linking these pages with the exponentially growing number of resources on the Web will produce a new generation of learning tools: a veritable revolution in teaching physics and science in general.

Textbooks

• Main Texts:

1. Soft Condensed Matter, by Richard A. L. Jones (Oxford University Press, 2007).
2. Solid State Physics, by J. R. Hook and H. E. Hall (Wiley, 2007).

• Other useful texts:

1. Chaikin and Lubensky (add details)
2. Mermin and Aschroft (add details)
3. Kittel (add details)

Student Responsibilities

• Homework: Your success in this course depends to a large extent on the effort you put into

completing the weekly homework assignments. Problem sets will be handed out (posted on the class webpage) and are due on the days designated on the syllabus master table. Homework solutions will be posted on the course webpage after they are handed in. Therefore, late homework will not be accepted. Exams: There will be two mid-term exams and a final exam. A one-page note for the first midterm exam, a two-page note for the second mid-term exam, and a three-page note for the final exam can be used. Any discussion regarding the grading of the two mid-term exams must take place within two weeks of the hand-back date.

• Term "Paper": A term paper, at least 2000 words on a certain topic is due on Friday, April 1. Instead of presenting this "paper" in writin form, students will contribute the corresponding materials (including graphs, pictures, tables, etc.) to the set of our course Wiki-pages. A separate handout with specific instructions and a list of 10 topics will be handed out in class. If you prefer to work on a topic that is not on the list, you must get prior approval. There is quite some flexibility in the scientific content and the depth into which you address the scientific issues. You are encouraged to discuss these with me in

the process. The paper must be in your original words, with proper references if previous work is cited.