PHY104C (Spring 14)
Intermediate Methods of Mathematical Physics

Instructor: Hsin-Chia Cheng (cheng [at] physics.ucdavis.edu)

Time & Place: Tue & Thu 12:10-1:30PM, 140 PHYSICS

Office Hours: Mon 11-12noon & Tue 3-4PM, 433 Physics, or by appointments

Prerequisites: PHY104A

Website: http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/~cheng/teaching/104C-s14
Homework assignments and additional information can be found on the SmartSite course page. The mailing list for this class is phy104c-s14@smartsite.ucdavis.edu.

TA: Gabriel Herczeg (gmherczeg@ucdavis.edu), Office hour: 2:30-3:30PM, 410 Physics

Textbook: For the first half of the course, we will continue using the free textbook, Mathematical Tools for Physics by James Nearing, adopted by Prof. Luty for 104A. We will use other free online books or notes for the second half of the course. A useful reference and a common textbook for the undergraduate level mathematical physics course is Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas, 3rd Edition. We may use some materials in that book as supplements, though you are not required to purchase it. We will also post lecture notes on SmartSite

Homework: The reading assignments are posted on the SmartSite Calendar. Reading the materials before the class will help you to understand the subjects better when we discuss them in class. There are weekly problem sets. They will be posted in the Resources on the SmartSite. Doing the problem sets is an extremely important part of learning. You can't learn the subject by just listening to the lectures without working through things by yourself. You can discuss the problem sets with your classmates, but you are not allowed to copy other people's work. Each of you is required to write up your own homework following your own understandings. Each problem set is due about one week after its assignment in class. No late homework will be accepted so even if you couldn't finish you should turn in what you have done. The solutions will be available on the SmartSite course website after the problem sets are turned in.

Exams: There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. The midterm exam is tentatively scheduled on May 8 in class. The final exam is on Thu, June 12, 10:30-12:30PM in 140 Physics

Grading: 30% for Homework, 30% for the midterm exam, 40% for the final exam

Topics of the course

• Functions of a complex variable (Ch.14 of Nearing)
  
• Fourier transforms (Ch.15 and Ch.17 of Nearing)
  
• Series solutions of differential equations, Legendre, Bessel and other functions
  
• Probaility and Statistics (if time permits)
  

Other Information

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