1 - 10 of 40 results for: APPPHYS

Preference to freshmen. The physics of lasers and their light. Computer applets and hands-on investigations. Historical development of ideas about light: electromagnetic waves; particles; special relativity; quantum theory; and the laser. Properties of laser light: wavelength and frequency; coherence; polarization; interference; diffraction; and linear and nonlinear optics. Lasers and applications from Schawlow and Townes to Linac Coherent Light Source. Prerequisites: high school physics and calculus.

Preference to freshmen. Choices for meeting the future energy needs of the U.S. and the world. Basic physics of energy sources, technologies that might be employed, and related public policy issues. Trade-offs and societal impacts of different energy sources. Policy options for making rational choices for a sustainable world energy economy.

Skillbuilding in biological quantitative reasoning. Topics include: biological size scales from proteins to ecosystems; biological time scales from enzymatic catalysis and DNA replication to evolution; biological energy, motion, and force from molecular to organismic scales; mechanisms of environmental sensing from bacterial chemotaxis to vision. Prerequisite: Physics 21, 41, or consent of instructor.

Lecture/lab emphasizing analog and digital electronics for lab research. RC and diode circuits. Transistors. Feedback and operational amplifiers. Active filters and circuits. Pulsed circuits, voltage regulators, and power circuits. Precision circuits, low-noise measurement, and noise reduction techniques. Circuit simulation tools. Principles of synchronous demodulation and applications of lock-in amplifiers. Combinatorial and synchronous digital circuits. Design using programmable logic. Analog/digital conversion. Microprocessors and real time programming. Current lab interface protocols. Techniques commonly used for lab measurements. Development of student lab projects during the last three weeks of 208. Limited enrollment. Prerequisites: undergraduate device and circuit exposure.

Lecture/lab emphasizing analog and digital electronics for lab research. RC and diode circuits. Transistors. Feedback and operational amplifiers. Active filters and circuits. Pulsed circuits, voltage regulators, and power circuits. Precision circuits, low-noise measurement, and noise reduction techniques. Circuit simulation tools. Principles of synchronous demodulation and applications of lock-in amplifiers. Combinatorial and synchronous digital circuits. Design using programmable logic. Analog/digital conversion. Microprocessors and real time programming. Current lab interface protocols. Techniques commonly used for lab measurements. Development of student lab projects during the last three weeks of 208. Limited enrollment. Prerequisites: undergraduate device and circuit exposure.

Topics include: random numbers, and their generation and application; disordered systems, quenching, and annealing; percolation and fractal structures; universality, the renormalization group, and limit theorems; path integrals, partition functions, and Wiener measure; random matrices; and optical estimation. Prerequisite: introductory course in statistical mechanics or analysis.

Technology issues for a secure energy future; role of solid state physics in energy technologies. Topics include the physics principles behind future technologies related to solar energy and solar cells, solid state lighting, superconductivity, solid state fuel cells and batteries, electrical energy storage, materials under extreme condition, nanomaterials.

Structure of quantum theory emphasizing states, measurements, and probabilistic modeling. Generalized quantum measurement theory; parallels between classical and quantum probability; conditional expectation in the Schrödinger and Heisenberg pictures; covariance with respect to symmetry groups; reference frames and super-selection rules. Classical versus quantum correlations; nonlocal aspects of quantum probability; axiomatic approaches to interpretation. Prerequisites: undergraduate quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and basic probability and statistics.

Laws and concepts of quantum information science. Postulates of quantum mechanics: symmetrization postulate, quantum indistinguishability and multi-particle interference, commutation relation and quantum measurement, reduction postulate and impossibility of measuring, cloning and deleting a single wavefunction. Quantum information theory: von Neumann entropy, Holevo information and Schumacher data compression. Decoherence: Linbladian, quantum error correction, and purification of entanglement.