PHYSICS 50: MODERN PHYSICS
Offered each SPRING semester.
Teacher: Athanasios Petridis
Harvey Ingham 31C
Phone: (515) 271-3723
E-Mail: Athan.Petridis@drake.edu
Class Schedule: MWF, 11:00 am – 12:10 pm.
Office hours: MW 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, F 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Textbook: “Quantum Physics” by R. Eisberg and R.
Resnick (ed. Wiley, 2nd edition).
Homework: 1 assignment per week (40 points total).
Exams: 3 exams during the semester (15 points each),
1 non-comprehensive
final (15 points).
Grading:
100 <= points <= 85
is A
85 < points <= 75
is B
75 < points <= 65
is C
65 < points <= 50
is D
50 < points <=
0 is F
No extra-credit assignments are offered during or at the end of the semester.
The following topics are covered in the course (the list is
neither inclusive or exclusive and may change from year to year or during the
semester according to instructor’s view or to match student interests):
- Thermal
radiation and Plank’s postulate
- Photons
and particle-like properties of radiation
- De
Broglie’s postulate and wave-like properties of particles
- Bohr’s model of the atom and the
correspondence principle
- Schrödinger’s
theory of quantum mechanics and the Copenhagen interpretation
- Solutions
to the time-independent Schrödinger’s equation
- One-electron
atoms and orbital angular momentum
- Magnetic
dipole moments, spin, and transition rates
- Multi-electron
atoms, ground states and x-rays
- Quantum
statistics, photon and phonon gases, and lasers
- Molecules, covalent bonds, vibration and
rotation spectra
- Solid-state
physics, conductors, semiconductors, superconductors
- Paramagnetism,
ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism
- The
atomic nucleus, its properties, the Fermi-gas and shell models
- Nuclear
reactions, alpha, beta, and gamma decays, fission and fusion
- Elementary
particles, fundamental forces, color and weak charges
- Conservation
laws, isospin, strangeness, charm, bottomness, and topness