53713 Mathematical Methods of Physics III - Autumn 2011





News announcements:

[3 January 2012]: As previously anticipated, the next Mathematical Methods of Physics III exam will be on Thursday, 5 January (this Thursday): it will take place from 12:00 to 16:00, in classroom D106 of the Physicum building.
[21 December 2011]: Pending classroom availability, there will probably be an exam during the first week of January 2012 (most likely on Thursday 5 January).
[12 December 2011]: The course ended today, with the last exercise session; all students who have not done the online registration to this course yet (if any) are invited to register through the WebOodi interface by the end of this week. As already announced, the final exam of the course is scheduled for Friday 16 December 2011, from 12:00 to 16:00, in classroom E207 (on the second floor of the Physicum building), and it covers all the topics discussed in the course. Students who attended the course and/or the exercise sessions are also invited to give feedback using the WebOodi interface, for a period of three weeks after the end of the teaching period.
[28 November 2011]: The morning lectures on Monday 5, Thursday 8, Monday 12 and Thursday 15 December are canceled. Note, however, that there will still be a morning lecture on Thursday 1 December (in classroom D114, from 10:00 to 12:00), and two regular afternoon exercise sessions on Monday 5 December (in classroom D117, from 14:00 to 16:00) and on Monday 12 December (in classroom D117, from 14:00 to 16:00).
[24 November 2011]: A file containing a summary of the classification of simple Lie algebras and the associated Dynkin diagrams is available for download (see link below).
[23 November 2011]: The twelfth homework problem set is available for download (see link below); this is the last homework problem set.
[22 November 2011]: The eleventh homework problem set can be downloaded from the link below.
[21 November 2011]: The tenth homework problem set is available for download. The file including miscellaneous definitions and formulas has been updated (see the link in the "Lecture notes and bibliography references" section below).
[13 November 2011]: The ninth homework problem set is available for download (see link below).
[7 November 2011]: The eighth homework problem set is available for download.
[1 November 2011]: The seventh homework problem set is online (see below).
[31 October 2011]: The deadline for returning the sixth homework problem set has been postponed to Monday 7 November.
[21 October 2011]: The sixth homework problem set is available for download (see link below). The typos in the fifth problem set have been corrected: please refer to the new version.
[20 October 2011]: A clarification about problem 2 of the fifth problem set: the second question ("Is Q closed under this generalized commutator?") should be understood as: "Is the vector space spanned by the elements of Q closed under this generalized commutator?". Similarly, in the last question, "the center of Q" should be understood as: "the center of the vector space spanned by the elements of Q".
[18 October 2011]: A short note on homotopy groups and exact sequences (in beta version) is available for download: see the link below.
[17 October 2011]: The deadline for returning the fourth homework problem set has been extended to Wednesday 19 October, and the deadline for returning the fifth homework problem set has been extended to Wednesday 26 October.
[13 October 2011]: The final exam of the course has been scheduled for Friday 16 December 2011, from 12:00 to 16:00, in classroom E207 (on the second floor of the Physicum building). The file collecting some definitions introduced at the lectures, but not covered in the lectures, has been updated (see the link in the "Lecture notes and bibliography references" section below). The fifth homework problem set is available for download (see link below).
[6 October 2011]: The fourth homework problem set is available for download (see below).
[3 October 2011]: The third homework problem set is available for download (see below).
[26 September 2011]: Due to unforeseeable reasons, the lecture on Monday 26 September 2011 was canceled. Update on the exercise sessions: The exercises will take place on Mondays from 14:00 to 16:00 in room D117, starting from Monday 3 October.
[12 September 2011]: The second homework problem set is available (see link below). A beta version of the notes on Young calculus is also available for download below (please report possible typos you may find).
[5 September 2011]: Update about the exercise sessions, and deadline for returning the first homework problem set (see below).

Course contents:

The program of the course includes an introduction to group theory, topology, and geometry for applications in physics.

Lectures:

The lectures are scheduled on Mondays 10:00-12:00 and Thursdays 10:00-12:00 in classroom D114 during the first and second teaching periods (which cover the period from 5 September to 18 December 2011, except during the autumn holiday 24-30 October). The last morning lecture is scheduled for Thursday 1 December (and it will be mostly devoted to the discussion of exercises and problems). During the period from 5 to 18 December, there will be no morning lectures anymore, but there will still be two afternoon exercise sessions in classroom D117 (from 14:00 to 16:00), on Monday 5 and on Monday 12 December.
The lecturer of the course is Marco Panero.

Final exam:

Students had their first chance to give the final exam of the course on Friday 16 December 2011, from 12:00 to 16:00, in classroom E207, on the second floor of the Physicum building.
The next final exam is scheduled for Thursday, 5 January 2011 from 12:00 to 16:00, in classroom D106 of the Physicum building. The final grades are calculated from the results of the final exam and from the results of the problem sets returned during the course.

Lecture notes and bibliography references:

The lectures will mostly follow the 2008 edition of the notes by Claus Montonen and Esko Keski-Vakkuri. In addition, the program of the course also includes some additional topics, which are summarized in the following short notes about Young calculus, about homotopy groups and exact sequences, about the classification of simple Lie algebras, together with some miscellaneous definitions and formulæ.
Useful (but not compulsory) textbooks include: H.F. Jones Groups, Representations and Physics (IOP Publishing, 1998); M. Nakahara Geometry, Topology and Physics (IOP Publishing, 2003); H. Georgi Lie Algebras in Particle Physics (Addison-Wesley, any edition); F. Iachello Lie Algebras and Applications (Springer, 2006).

Exercises:

The course includes exercise sessions with the teaching assistant Tuukka Meriniemi. Starting from October 3rd, these exercise session will take place every Monday (except on 24 October, during the semester break week), from 14:00 to 16:00 in classroom D117. The last exercise session is scheduled for Monday 12 December.
During the first two weeks of the course, there were two special exercise sessions (which took place from 10:00 to 12:00 in classroom BK 106, in the Exactum wing of the building) on Friday 9 September and on Wednesday 14 September.

Problem sets:

Please return the solutions to Tuukka Meriniemi's mailbox (corridor A on the third floor of the Physicum building) by the deadlines indicated.

Problem set 1 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Wednesday 14 September.
Problem set 2 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Friday 30 September.
Problem set 3 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Friday 14 October.
Problem set 4 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Wednesday 19 October.
Problem set 5 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Wednesday 26 October.
Problem set 6 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Monday 7 November.
Problem set 7 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Friday 11 November.
Problem set 8 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Thursday 17 November.
Problem set 9 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Tuesday 22 November.
Problem set 10 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Tuesday 29 November.
Problem set 11 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Thursday 1 December.
Problem set 12 in pdf format; deadline for submitting the solutions: Thursday 8 December.




This page was last updated on Tuesday 3 January 2012.