Graduate and advanced undergraduate instruction in theoretical physics.
Courses emphasize physical intuition, structural clarity, and foundational principles underlying modern theoretical physics. The focus is on conceptual compression, creativity, and laws with wide explanatory power. `Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.'
Core Courses Taught:
Statistical Mechanics
Quantum Mechanics
General Relativity
Classical Electrodynamics
Classical Mechanics
Thermodynamics & Statistical Physics
Advanced Mathematical Physics
Astronomy
Statistical mechanics notebooks:
Elements:
• 2nd Law Typicality
• Liouville Theorem
• Euler-Maclaurin Bridge
• Poincaré Recurrence
• Ergodicity Hypothesis
• Boltzmann H-theorem
• Fluctuation-Dissipation
• Random Walk
• Heat Equation (Schrodinger-Wick)
• Brownian Motion
• Carathéodory Inaccessibility
• Carnot Efficiency
• Kelvin-Clausius Equivalence
• Microscopic First Law
• Maxwell Relations
Classical:
• Two-Level System (Microcanonical)
• Two-Level System (Canonical)
• Einstein Solid
• Dulong-Petit Law
• Dirichlet Gases
• Ideal Gas (Canonical)
• Ideal Gas (Microcanonical)
• Ideal Gas (Grand Canonical)
• Sackur–Tetrode Equation
• Maxwell Distribution
• Bernoulli Pressure
• Van der Waals Equation
• Heisenberg Chain (classical)
• Debye–Hückel Screening
• Diatomic Gas
• Diatomic Staircase
• Degrees of Freedom
Quantum:
• Photon Gas
• Stefan–Boltzmann Law
• Wien Displacement
• Planck Radiation (1D)
• Johnson-Nyquist Noise
• Phonon Gas
• Bose Gas (weak quantum statistics)
• Fermi Gas (weak quantum statistics)
• BEC (pressure)
• Fermi Gas (pressure)
• Fermi Gas (heat capacity)
• Curie's Law
• Pauli Paramagnetism
• Bohr-von Leeuwen Theorem
• Landau Levels
• Landau Diamagnetism
Criticality:
• Van der Waals Isotherms
• Van der Waals Universality
• Clausius-Clapeyron Equation
• BEC (heat capacity)
• Lee-Yang Zeros
• Ising Chain (classical)
• Ising Model 1D
• Ising Model 2D
• Kramers-Wannier Duality
• Peierls Droplets
Gravity:
• Chandrasekhar Limit
• Jeans Instability
• Tolman-Ehrenfest Effect
• Bekenstein-Hawking Entropy
• Equipartition and Black Hole Entropy
• t'Hooft Brick Wall
• Barometric Formula (Ideal Gas in a Gravitational Field)
Courses Taught at Nazarbayev University by MG:
Courses_Taught_at_Nazarbayev_University_by_Michael_Good.pdf
Influence via Academic Tree:
Influence_via_Academic_Tree.pdf
Student Projects: