Physics 504 - Collective and Emergent Phenomena 

Instructor: Tankut Can

Email: tcan@emory.edu

Time/Location: TuTh 11:30am - 12:45pm, Emerson E103

Office Hour: Tu 1 - 2pm, MSC N242

Course Format: 

This will be a traditional lecture based course with weekly homework. 

Course Description (from course catalog):

In this course we will learn how to link microscopic with macroscopic descriptions of matter, we will learn how to understand collective phenomena and emergent properties of matter, and we will do so through the lenses of symmetry, of scale, and of statistical physics. Over the semester we will study thermodynamical descriptions of both bulk phases and the transitions between them, and we will then understand how this essentially phenomenological approach can be understood via statistical physics (a subject grew out of concerns about steam engines and billiard-ball models of the air around us, led to beautiful and abstract ideas like entropy and information, and today gives us a systematic framework to study complex systems from across disciplines!). We will close with a first look at critical points, universality, and the renormalization group, one of the most beautiful ideas to come out of 20th century physics

Aim of Course:

To bring students’ understanding of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and collective phenomena to the level expected of a professional physicist.

Grading: 

• 25% Homework: will be posted on Canvas, where it can also be submitted. Homework is accepted up to a week late. 

• 25% Midterm

• 50% Final 

References:

For problems and lectures, I will draw from many resources. If something doesn't make sense in one book, it might make sense in another. I recommend looking around. Almost all of the textbooks and notes are freely available online (just google "author + title + pdf"):

Graduate Texts:

• Kardar - Statistical Physics of Particles (my primary reference, especially for problems) [K]

• Kardar - Statistical Physics of Fields (for more advanced topics, if we get to them) [K2]

• Ma - Statistical Mechanics

• Goodstein - States of Matter

• Sethna - Statistical Mechanics

• Daniel Arovas Lectures Notes

• David Tong Lectures on Statistical Physics

Nice Undergrad Texts and Lecture Notes:

• Matthew Schwartz Lecture Notes

• Schroeder - Intro to Thermal Physics

• Blundell & Blundell - Concepts in Thermal Physics

• Reif - Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics

• Fermi - Thermodynamics 

Plan of Course:

(Subject to revision; some topics may be abbreviated or omitted depending on pace. Some topics which do not currently appear may be added. This is not necessarily the order in which they'll be covered.)

1. Thermodynamics

2. Probability

3. Kinetic Theory of Gases

4. Classical Statistical Mechanics

5. Interacting Particles

6. Quantum Statistical Mechanics

7. Ideal Quantum Gases

8. Phase Transitions and Collective Phenomena

9. Critical Phenomena

Course Schedule:

Below you will find the most up-to-date schedule of lectures. 

A few lectures might have to be rescheduled. I will keep you posted.