Email: balents@kitp.ucsb.edu
Phone: 893-6381
W 2:00-3:00pm in KITP 2315
Th 2:00-3:00pm
in KITP 2315
This course is the second quarter of statistical mechanics. It focuses on collective behavior of many-particle systems, hydrodynamics, and phase transitions.
Mehran Kardar, "Statistical Mechanics of Fields"
Physics 219.
You are expected to complete the reading in advance of the specified lecture
| Lecture | Topic | Reading | Homework assigned | Homework due |
| 1 - 3/29/11 | Overview, phonon example | |||
| 2 - 3/31/11 | Ginzburg-Landau theory and mean-field approximation | Chapters 1+2 | PS 1 | |
| 3 - 4/5/11 | Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Goldstone modes | |||
| 4 - 4/7/11 | Fluctuations and correlations | Chapter 3 | ||
| 5 - 4/12/11 | Ginzburg criterion | |||
| 6 - 4/14/11 | Scaling theory | Chapter 4 | PS 2 | PS 1 (updated!) solutions |
| 7 - 4/19/11 | Renormalization group - Introduction | |||
| 8 - 4/21/11 | Renormalization group - perturbative | Chapter 5 | ||
| 9 - 4/26/11 | Renormalization group - perturbative | |||
| 10 - 4/28/11 | Renormalization group - perturbative | |||
| 11 - 5/3/11 | Lattice models | Chapter 6 | PS 2 solutions | |
| 12 - 5/5/11 | 1d exact solutions | Chapter 7 | ||
| 13 - 5/10/11 | Series expansions | PS 3 | ||
| 14 - 5/12/11 | Series expansions and duality | |||
| 15 - 5/17/11 | Z2 gauge theory and phantom loops | |||
| 16 - 5/19/11 | solution of the 2d Ising model | Chapter 8 | PS 4 cancelled! | PS 3 solutions |
| 17 - 5/24/11 | guest lecture: Roger Melko on Monte Carlo | |||
| 18 - 5/26/11 | In and near two dimensions | |||
| 19 - 5/31/11 | vortices and the KT transition | |||
| 20 - 6/2/11 | KT transition and 2d melting | Final project due! |
Grades will be determined by a mix of homework and the final project.