PHY104A (Fall 24)
Introduction to Mathematical Methods in Physics

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

Time & Place: Tue & Thu 1:40-3:00 PM, 55 Roessler

Office Hours: Tue 11:30-12:30 & Thu 3-4 in 416 Physics

Prerequisites:  PHY 009C or PHY 009HD; MAT 022B; or Consent of Instructor

Website: http://cheng.physics.ucdavis.edu/teaching/104A-f24
Homework assignments and additional information can be found on the Canvas course page.

TA/Grader:  Ibrahim Hajar (ihhajar [at] ucdavis.edu), office hours: Tue 3-5, 432 Physics and Joe Yazbeck (jyazbeck [at] ucdavis.edu), office hours: Thu 11-12, 80 Physics

Textbook: The textbook is Mathematical Tools for Physics by James Nearing and it will be free to download on Canvas.  Another common textbook for the undergraduate level mathematical physics course, Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas, 3rd Edition, can be a useful reference, but you are not required to possess it.

Homework: There will be reading assignments before the classes. Reading the materials before the class will help you to understand the subjects better when we discuss them in class. There are weekly homework problem sets, which will be posted on the Canvas.The homework should be submitted to Gradescope. We will use Gradescope to handle the grading of homework and exams. Each problem set is due about one week after its assignment.   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 Canvas course website after grading. Doing the homework problems 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 homework problems with your classmates, but you are not allowed to copy other people's work or solutions provided by online helpers such as Chegg or ChatGPT. Each of you is required to write up your own homework following your own understandings.

Exams: There will be 2 midterm exams and a final exam. The midterm exams are tentatively scheduled on Thu, Oct 24 and Thu, Nov 21 in class. The final exam will be on Tue, Dec 10, 8;00-10:00 AM, according to the the university schedule.

Grading: 20% for Homework, 20% for each of the two midterm exams, 40% for the final exam

Topics of the course

• Review of basic stuff and infinite series (Ch 1 & 2 of Nearing)
• Review of complex numbers (Ch 3 of Nearing)
• Vector space and linear algebra (Ch 6 & 7 of Nearing)
  
• Fourier Series and introduction to Fourier transform (Ch 5 and part of Ch 15 of Nearing)
• Delta function (part of Ch 17 of Nearing)
  
• Differential equations (Ch 4 of Nearing)
• Partial differential equations (Ch 10 of Nearing)
  
• Review of vector calculus (Ch 9 &13 of Nearing)
  

Other Information

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