Ji Zou - Teaching and notes

I. Teaching

Teaching has always been an enjoyable and rewarding activity for me.

I deepen my own understanding by figuring out ways to teach (or explain) complex and profound concepts through simple examples or by using physical illustrations with minimal algebra. I always experience a great sense of joy and achievement whenever my students tell me they have benefited greatly from our discussions.

A. Graduate courses at UCLA

I received the Outstanding Teaching Fellow of the Year award in 2021. I'm quite proud to have this award as an international student.

I have TAed classes: Advanced Solid-State Theory I, II, and III during the academic year 2021-2022. These courses cover techniques frequently utilized in condensed matter theory, including Green's functions, Feynman diagrams, the renormalization group, bosonization, etc., as well as modern topics like topological phases.

I also taught Graduate Quantum Mechanics I, II, and Statistical Physics, the recordings of which can be found here. Below are some comments from my students.

B. Undergraduate courses at UCLA

I also taught many undergraduate courses, varying from lower-level classes, such as Mechanics, Energy, Electricity, and Magnetism, to upper-level classes, such as Undergraduate Quantum Mechanics I, II, III, and Mathematical Methods for Physicists.

The recording of the class Mathematical Methods for Physicists can be found here.

C. Courses at University of Basel

I have also taught several courses at the University of Basel, Switzerland. During the Spring semesters of 2023, 2024, and 2025, I TAed Quantum Computation with spin qubits. I lectured on the part about the open quantum system, noise, and entanglement measures.

In Fall 2023, I TAed Quantum Phase Transitions and Correlation Effects in Many-Body Systems, and in Fall 2024, I assisted in teaching Quantum Mechanics.

II. Notes

Here, I collect my notes on various topics and some resources that I find useful while learning these subjects.

"If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others."---Confucius

A. Some Notes from My Graduate School Years

These notes, mainly written and typed during my graduate school years while learning these topics, were thought to be handy to have around for my own reference.

My typed notes on condensed matter theory, including topics like Topological Excitations, Duality, Renormalization Group, Topological Quantum Computing, and Topological Phases.
My typed notes on various topics that I am interested in, such as Magnetism, Non-Hermitian Dynamics, Open Quantum System, Quantum Entanglement, Topology, Hydrodynamics.
My typed notes when reading Statistical Field Theory by Kardar.
My handwritten notes when reading Statistical Field Theory by David Tong.
My handwritten notes when reading "Where do QFTs come from?" by John McGreevy.

B. Some Resources

Here are some resources that I found extremely useful when I was learning some topics.

Lecture notes by David Tong, Eduardo Fradkin, John McGreevy, Subir Sachdev, Ashvin Vishwanath, Leon Balents, and John Preskill.
Books that I personally benefit a lot from: "QFT in a nutshell" by A. Zee, "Geometry, Topology, and Physics" by Nakahara, and "Principles of Condensed Matter Physics" by Chaikin and Lubensky.
Some useful references about anomaly: 1. M. Shifman's notes; 2. lectures given by Yuji Tachikawa at TASI and CERN winter school 2018; 3. lectures given by Edward Witten at Princeton summer school 2015; 4. notes by David Tong, Eduardo Fradkin and John McGreevy.
Some useful references about scientific writing: 1. Weitzlab guide; 2. Eric D’Hoker's notes; 3. Online lectures.
A very useful talk given by Jairo Sinova for Ph.D. students; Fly by night physics given by A. Zee, my Blog.
About research, papers by David Stern and Martin Schwartz; How to succeed in graduate school in theoretical physics by Daniel Harlow.

C. Short Notes

Here are some scattered short notes written while I was teaching or learning various topics. I thought they might be useful for quick reference.

III. Interesting papers to read

Here are some papers that I found interesting to read in general.

B.I. Halperin, Superfluidity, melting, and liquid-crystal phases in two dimensions
L. Onsager, Reciprocal Relations in Irreversible Processes. I. & II.
P. W. Anderson, More is different
Steven M. Girvin, Circuit QED
N. David Mermin, Autobiographical Notes of a Physicist

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