PHYS 231
Methods of Theoretical Physics
Methods of Theoretical Physics
Prof. Flip Tanedo (PHYS 3053, flip.tanedo@ucr.edu)
Syllabus and course materials are on GitHub.
This is a crash course on the mathematical methods necessary to succeed in the first year graduate curriculum. Our primary focus will be to be able to solve partial differential equations using Green's functions. This will pull in techniques from linear algebra and complex analysis. If time permits, we may explore other topics toward the end of the course such as statistical methods for physics and astronomy.
10:00 - 10:50am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Winston Chung Hall 139
Typed up course notes (typed up as the course progresses)
There is no required textbook for the course, though I particularly like Mathematics for Physics & Physicists by Appel (ISBN: 9780691131023).
I strongly recommended that you have access to at least one general "math methods for physicists" reference. If you have a favorite one from undergrad, you may use that (e.g. Arfken & Weber or Boas). The book by Byron and Fuller is a solid choice and is inexpensive as a Dover edition. You can also find many free digital references through the UCR library.
If you find references that you really like, please feel free to e-mail me to share them.
Each year this course is slightly different based on the feedback of the previous years' students and the discretion of the instructor. The number of blatant errors should be decreasing (mostly monotonically) with time. The number of subtle errors is also decreasing adiabatically.
Each assignment is split between a short homework (due by the next lecture) and a long homework (due in two weeks). This is sometimes called rapid-response teaching; it helps keep both the instructor and the students aware of individual progress.