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 – 12:15 pm.

Office hours: MR 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Textbook: “Quantum Physics” by R. Eisberg and R. Resnick (ed. Wiley, 2^nd 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):

1. Thermal radiation and Plank’s postulate
2. Photons and particle-like properties of radiation
3. De Broglie’s postulate and wave-like properties of particles
4. Bohr’s model of the atom and the correspondence principle
5. Schrödinger’s theory of quantum mechanics and the Copenhagen interpretation
6. Solutions to the time-independent Schrödinger’s equation
7. One-electron atoms and orbital angular momentum
8. Magnetic dipole moments, spin, and transition rates
9. Multi-electron atoms, ground states and x-rays
10. Quantum statistics, photon and phonon gases, and lasers
11. Molecules, covalent bonds, vibration and rotation spectra
12. Solid-state physics, conductors, semiconductors, superconductors
13. Paramagnetism, ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism
14. The atomic nucleus, its properties, the Fermi-gas and shell models
15. Nuclear reactions, alpha, beta, and gamma decays, fission and fusion
16. Elementary particles, fundamental forces, color and weak charges
17. Conservation laws, isospin, strangeness, charm, bottomness, and topness