Teaching

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

Classical mechanics lectures:

Elements:

• Bridgman’s and Buckingham Pi theorems

• Galilean group, Newtonian Perspective

• Strategies

Newton's Laws (inertial):

• Statics, Equal Forces, Torque Equilibrium

• Using F=ma, Review of Dimensional Decomposition

• Gravity and electromagnetism force symmetry

Newton's Laws (non-inertial):

• Non-inertial frames, Coriolis, Euler, and Centrifugal

• Rotating Frame Effects on Earth: plumb lines and tower balls

• Foucault Pendulum and Larmor Precession

Oscillations (principles):

• Universality, Linearity, Decoupling

• Isochrony, Phase Space, Adiabatic Invariance

• Resonance as Poles, Stability and Symmetry Breaking, Spring Theory

• Oscillator Ladder, Oscillation Excitations, Occupation of a Single Oscillator

Oscillations (applications):

• Small Oscillations and Stability in 1D

• Many Degrees of Freedom, Matrix Method, Decoupling

• Small Oscillations of the Double Pendulum

• Normal Modes of the Linear Triatomic Molecule

General relativity lectures:

• Euclid, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, Maxwell

•Lorentz and Poincaré

• Boost charge and the massless photon

• Relativistic mechanics, collisions, GZK, action, stress tensor

• Celerity, cone coordinates, proper(-ty) acceleration, and rapidity

• Covariant electromagnetism

• Electromagnetic field as gauge curvature

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)

• Graviton Gas (& Planckian gravitons)

• Jacobson Einstein Equation of State

• Verlinde Entropic Gravity

Courses, Tree, Projects

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:

Projects with Students.pdf

Projects for Students.pdf

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse