Physics Honours Lectures

Overview

This unit aims to provide advance knowledge of the underlying principles and concepts in physics and the skills required for undertaking a postgraduate research program.

Requisites

Teaching periods

Location

Start and end dates

Last self-enrolment date

Census date

Last withdraw without fail date

Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

Review, analyse, consolidate and synthesise advanced knowledge to identify and provide solutions to complex problems with intellectual independence
Display cognitive and technical skills to demonstrate both a broad understanding of physics theoretical concepts along with advanced understanding in specialized physics areas
Demonstrate initiative, critical thinking and judgement in developing new understanding
Display communication skills to present a clear and coherent exposition of knowledge and ideas to a variety of audiences

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type	Hours per week	Number of weeks	Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Lecture	6.00	12 weeks	72
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Tutorial	2.00	12 weeks	24
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out) Independent Learning	4.50	12 weeks	54
TOTAL			150

Assessment

Type	Task	Weighting	ULO's
Assignment	Individual	20 - 40%	1,2,3,4
Class Exercises	Individual/Group	10 - 20%	1,2,3,4
Online Quizzes	Individual	10 - 20%	1,2
Test	Individual	40 - 60%	1,2,3,4

Hurdle

As the minimum requirements of assessment to pass a unit and meet all ULOs to a minimum standard, an undergraduate student must have achieved:

an overall mark for the unit of 50% or more

Content

Students complete the following four modules:

Classical Mechanics: Lagrangian formalism: principle of least action, constrained optimisation, generalised coordinates, Noether's theorem and symmetries. Hamiltonian formalism: Hamilton's equations, Liouville's theorem, Poisson brackets, canonical transformations, dynamical systems
Quantum Mechanics: angular momentum, identical particles, perturbation theory, scattering theory, density matrices and approximation methods.
Statistical Mechanics: Microcanonical, canonical ensembles and grand canonical ensembles, Boltzmann and Quantum statistics
Electromagnetism: Maxwell's equations, potentials, electromagnetic waves, classical optics, boundary value problems, radiation, antennas, and relativistic electrodynamics.

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.