11 - 20 of 53 results for: PHYSICS

Energy as a consumable. Forms and interconvertability. World Joule budget. Equivalents in rivers, oil pipelines and nuclear weapons. Quantum mechanics of fire, batteries and fuel cells. Hydrocarbon and hydrogen synthesis. Fundamental limits to mechanical, electrical and magnetic strengths of materials. Flywheels, capacitors and high pressure tanks. Principles of AC and DC power transmission. Impossibility of pure electricity storage. Surge and peaking. Solar constant. Photovoltaic and thermal solar conversion. Physical limits on agriculture.

Radioactivity. Elementary nuclear processes. Energetics of fission and fusion. Cross-sections and resonances. Fissionable and fertile isotopes. Neutron budgets. Light water, heavy water and graphite reactors. World nuclear energy production. World reserves of uranium and thorium. Plutonium, reprocessing and proliferation. Half lives of fission decay products and actinides made by neutron capture. Nuclear waste. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Molten sodium breeders. Generation-IV reactors. Inertial confinement and magnetic fusion. Laser compression. Fast neutron production and fission-fusion hybrids. Prerequisities: Strong undergraduate background in elementary chemistry and physics. PHYSICS 240 and PHYSICS 252 recommended but not required. Interested undergraduates encouraged to enroll, with permission of instructor.

Elementary particles and the fundamental forces. Quarks and leptons. The mediators of the electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions. Interaction of particles with matter; particle acceleration, and detection techniques. Symmetries and conservation laws. Bound states. Decay rates. Cross sections. Feynman diagrams. Introduction to Feynman integrals. The Dirac equation. Feynman rules for quantum electrodynamics and for chromodynamics. Undergraduates register for PHYSICS 152. Graduate students register for PHYSICS 252. (Graduate students will be required to complete additional assignments in a format determined by the instructor.) Prerequisite: PHYSICS 130.

Radiative processes. Observed characteristics of stars and the Milky Way galaxy. Physical processes in stars and matter under extreme conditions. Structure and evolution of stars from birth to death. White dwarfs, planetary nebulae, supernovae, neutron stars, pulsars, binary stars, x-ray stars, and black holes. Galactic structure, interstellar medium, molecular clouds, HI and HII regions, star formation, and element abundances. Undergraduates register for PHYSICS 160. Graduate students register for PHYSICS 260. Pre-requisite: Physics 120 or permission of instructor. Recommended: Some familiarity with plotting and basic numerical calculations.

What do we know about the physical origins, content, and evolution of the Universe -- and how do we know it? Students learn how cosmological distances and times, and the geometry and expansion of space, are described and measured. Composition of the Universe. Origin of matter and the elements. Observational evidence for dark matter and dark energy. Thermal history of the Universe, from inflation to the present. Emergence of large-scale structure from quantum perturbations in the early Universe. Astrophysical tools used to learn about the Universe. Big open questions in cosmology. Undergraduates register for Physics 161. Graduates register for Physics 261. (Graduate students will be required to complete additional assignments in a format determined by the instructor.) Prerequisite: PHYSICS 120 or equivalent.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is a basis for modern ideas of fundamental physics, including string theory, as well as for studies of cosmology and astrophysics. The course begins with an overview of special relativity, and the description of gravity as arising from curved space. From Riemannian geometry and the geodesic equations, to curvature, the energy-momentum tensor, and the Einstein field equations. Applications of General Relativity: topics may include experimental tests of General Relativity and the weak-field limit, black holes (Schwarzschild, charged Reissner-Nordstrom, and rotating Kerr black holes), gravitational waves (including detection methods), and an introduction to cosmology (including cosmic microwave background radiation, dark energy, and experimental probes). Prerequisite: PHYSICS 121 or equivalent including special relativity.

Statistical methods constitute a fundamental tool for the analysis and interpretation of experimental physics data. In this course, students will learn the foundations of statistical data analysis methods and how to apply them to the analysis of experimental data. Problem sets will include data-sets from real experiments and require the use of programming tools to extract physics results. Topics include probability and statistics, experimental uncertainties, parameter estimation, confidence limits, and hypothesis testing. Students will be required to complete a final project.

(Formerly numbered PHYSICS 366) Foundations of principled inference from data, primarily in the Bayesian framework, with applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Topics include probabilistic modeling of data, parameter constraints and model comparison, numerical methods including Markov Chain Monte Carlo, and connections to frequentist and machine learning frameworks. The course is organized around tutorial notebooks using Python and Numpy, providing hands-on experience with real data. Prerequisites: programming in Python at the level of CS 106A or PHYSICS 113; probability at the level of STATS 116, CS 109, or PHYSICS 166/266; or permission of instructor. Normally offered every 2 years.

Relativistic fermions, Weyl and Dirac equations, Majorana masses. Electroweak theory, neutrino cross sections, neutrino refraction in matter, MSW effect. Three-flavor oscillations, charge-parity violation, searches for sterile neutrinos, modern long- and short-baseline oscillation experiments. Seesaw mechanism, models of neutrino masses, lepton flavor violation. Neutrinoless double beta decay. Cosmological constraints on neutrino properties. Advanced topics, such as collective oscillations in supernovae or ultrahigh energy neutrinos, offered as optional projects. The material in this course is largely complementary to PHYS 269, focusing on particle physics aspects of neutrinos. Prerequisites: PHYSICS 121, 131 and 171 or equivalent. PHYS 230-231, 269, 152 and 161 or equivalent are helpful, but not required.