Physics

• CAS PY 405: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves I
  Electrostatics; electric fields in matter; magnetostatics; Laplace's equation; magnetic fields in matter; electrodynamics; conservation laws.
• CAS PY 406: Electromagnetic Fields and Waves II
  Electromagnetic waves; potentials and fields of moving charges; radiation; electrodynamics and special relativity.
• CAS PY 408: Intermediate Mechanics
  Dynamics of particles and rigid bodies. Chaos and phase space. Oscillatory motion, motion under a central force, and scattering off a central potential. Non-inertial frames of reference. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics. Coupled oscillations, normal modes, and continuum mechanics.
• CAS PY 410: Statistical Thermodynamics
  The laws of thermodynamics, statistical and information basis of thermodynamics, ensemble theory, equilibrium statistical mechanics and its application to physical systems of interest, irreversibility.
• CAS PY 421: Introduction to Computational Physics
  Undergraduate-level introduction to computer programming and methods used to formulate and solve physics problems on the computer. Also touches on more advanced topics such as parallel computing and graphical visualization.
• CAS PY 451: Quantum Physics 1
  Uncertainty principle; Schrodinger wave equation and applications; operators; hermitian operators and unitary transformations; harmonic oscillator; angular momentum and spin; hydrogen atom.
• CAS PY 452: Quantum Physics 2
  Degenerate and non-degenerate perturbation theory: hydrogen fine structure, Zeeman effect, helium splitting; time-dependent perturbation theory; Variational Principle; Adiabatic Approximation; scattering theory.
• CAS PY 482: Undergraduate Physics Seminar
  Intended primarily for upper-level physics students but open to others with consent of the instructor. In-depth examination at an undergraduate level of an area of current physics research. Topics cover areas of contemporary interest and vary from year to year; possible areas include general relativity, particle physics, biophysics, and superconductivity. (CAS PY 482 may be taken multiple times for credit.)
• CAS PY 485: Computation for Experimental Particle Physics
  This course introduces the experimental, computational, and statistical methods used in modern high energy particle physics. The Standard Model of particle physics, particle-matter interactions, major detector technologies, probability models, point estimations, fitting and confidence intervals are covered. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS PY 491: Directed Study or Research in Physics
  Intensive study of one aspect of physics under the supervision of a faculty member.
• CAS PY 492: Directed Study or Research in Physics
  Intensive study of one aspect of physics under the supervision of a faculty member.
• CAS PY 501: Mathematical Physics
  Introduction to complex variables and residue calculus, asymptotic methods, and conformal mapping; integral transforms; ordinary and partial differential equations; non-linear equations; integral equations.
• CAS PY 502: Computational Physics
  Fundamental methods of computational physics and applications; numerical algorithms; linear algebra, differential equations; computer simulation; vectorization, parallelism, and optimization. Examples and projects on scientific applications.
• CAS PY 511: Quantum Mechanics I
  General theory of quantum mechanics, including the Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and interaction pictures. The path integral formulation. Angular momentum: orbital and spin angular momentum, addition of angular momenta, Wigner-Eckart theorem. Scattering theory: time-independent, partial waves and phase shift, identical particles, time dependent, and propagators.
• CAS PY 512: Quantum Mechanics II
  Continuation of CAS PY 511. Degenerate and nondegenerate perturbation theory. Second quantization of nonrelativistic systems with applications to scattering, lifetime of excited atomic states, many-body problems. Relativistic quantum mechanics: Klein-Gordon equation, Dirac equation.
• CAS PY 521: Electromagnetic Theory I
  Vector and tensor analysis. Electrostatics, uniqueness, electrostatic energy, capacitance. Boundary value problems, conformal mapping, variable separation, Green's functions. Multipole expansion, electric polarization, atomic models, anisotropic media. Contour integration and application to frequency-dependent dielectric constant. Dielectrics, electrostatic energy, boundary value problems.
• CAS PY 522: Electromagnetic Theory II
  Continuation of CAS PY 521. Magnetostatics, dipole moment, magnetic materials, boundary value problems. Electromagnetic induction, magnetic energy, Maxwell's equations. Electromagnetic waves in materials, reflection, refraction. Waveguides. Scattering and diffraction. Special relativity. Lorentz transformations, covariant electrodynamics. Interaction of charges with matter. Radiation, Lienard-Wiechert potential, synchotron radiation, antennas.
• CAS PY 536: Quantum Computing
  Quantum physics as a powerful computational paradigm. Quantum bits (qubits), qubit operations and quantum gates, computation, and algorithms. Computational complexity classes, and efficiency of classical vs. quantum computers. Quantum Fourier transform and Shor's factorization algorithm. Physical implementation of quantum computation. Also offered as CAS CS 536.
• CAS PY 538: Interdisciplinary Methods for Quantitative Finance
  Expands upon the foundations of finance theory with interdisciplinary approaches from statistical physics and machine learning. Equips the students with the Python tools to tackle a broad range of problems in quantitative financial analysis and combines the study of relevant financial concepts with computational implementations. Students learn to use packages like Numpy, Pandas, Statsmodels and Scikit, which are commonly used in research and in the industry.
• CAS PY 541: Statistical Mechanics I
  Probability theory. Ensembles. Steepest descent methods. Paramagnetism, ideal gas, Einstein model, adsorption isotherms. Thermodynamics, Maxwell relations, heat capacity. Bose and Fermi gases. Electrons in metals, white dwarf stars, black-body radiation, phonons, Bose-Einstein condensation. Interacting systems, virial expansion, Van der Waals gas. Phase transitions: mean-field theories, spin systems.

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