Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • GRS PY 745: Experimental Surface Physics and Chemistry
    Introduction to the principles and experimental techniques of surface and interface physics and chemistry. Electronic, structural, vibrational, and magnetic properties of solid surfaces and interfaces. Emphasis on how these properties are measured. Also vacuum technology and x-ray generation.
  • GRS PY 747: Advanced Statistical Mechanics
    Introduction to classical and quantum chaos: Random Matrix Theory. Eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Doubly-stochastic evolution. Fluctuation theorems and other thermodynamic relations. Integrable systems, Many-body localization. Dynamics of Hamiltonian systems close to the adiabatic limit. Counter-adiabatic driving. Non-adiabatic response and quantum geometry.
  • GRS PY 751: High-Energy Physics 1
    Yearlong course (with GRS PY 752) on phenomenological aspects of modern high-energy physics. Principal topics are the standard model of strong and electro-weak interactions and the physics of electro-weak symmetry breaking. Intended for both theoretical and experimental students; emphasis on current calculational techniques.
  • GRS PY 771: Systems Biology for Physical Scientists and Engineers
    Focus is modern work on modeling biochemical networks. Core material includes signaling, genetic switches, biological oscillators and development. Begins with chemical kinetics in the context of molecular biology. Simple yet informative models based on physics approaches are emphasized.
  • GRS PY 782: Advanced Materials Characterization
    Introduction to the principles and applications of advanced materials characterization including study of atomic structure, electronic structure, defects, mechanical properties, transport properties, and carrier dynamics.
  • GRS PY 789: Computational Quantum Many-Body Physics
    This course introduces computational techniques for lattice models of interacting fermions, bosons, and quantum spins. Methods include Lanczos diagonalization, matrix-product states, and quantum Monte Carlo methods. Applications are taken from condensed matter and quantum-device physics (e.g., quantum annealing).
  • GRS PY 811: Advanced Quantum Field Theory
    Covers Scale Invariant Theories and Conformal Invariant Theories in various dimensions with applications to quantum criticality, statistical physics, and high-energy physics.
  • GRS PY 841: Symmetry in Condensed Matter Physics
    Theories of finite groups and their irreducible representations (Irreps), symmetry projection operators. Product groups and product representations. Crystalline symmetry, symmorphic and non-symmorphic space groups and induction of their Irreps. Spin-1/2 double groups, magnetic color groups. Time-reversal symmetry and co-representations.
  • GRS PY 895: Seminar: Special Topics in Theoretical Physics
    Theoretical research topics include general relativity, quantum field theory, high energy and particle physics, phase transitions, renormalization group, laser physics, kinetic equations, biophysics, computational physics, and selected topics in mathematical physics.
  • GRS PY 896: Seminar: Special Topics in Theoretical Physics
    Theoretical research topics include general relativity, quantum field theory, high energy and particle physics, phase transitions, renormalization group, laser physics, kinetic equations, biophysics, computational physics, and selected topics in mathematical physics.
  • GRS PY 901: Research in Physics
  • GRS PY 902: Research in Physics
  • GRS PY 909: Directed Study in Physics
  • GRS PY 910: Directed Study in Physics
  • GRS PY 961: Scholarly Methods in Physics 1
    Introduction to scholarly methods in physics teaching and research: effective STEM instructional techniques; successful oral and written presentations; reading and reporting scientific literature; ethical obligations in physics teaching and research; career paths in physics. Required of first-semester doctoral students.
  • GRS RN 601: Varieties of Early Christianity
    Surveys the many different and often competing forms of Christianity that arose and flourished in the second to the seventh Century, from the "apostolic period" to the Arab conquest in the Middle East.
  • GRS RN 612: Buddhism in America
    The transplantation and transformation of Buddhism in the United States. Time period ranges from the 18th century to the present, but the emphasis is on contemporary developments, including the new Asian immigration, Jewish Buddhism, feminization, and engaged Buddhism.
  • GRS RN 614: Religious Thought in America
    Surveys many of the strategies that American religious thinkers have adopted for interpreting the cosmos, the social order and human experience, and the interaction of those strategies with broader currents of American culture. Also offered as GRS HI 708. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
  • GRS RN 616: Modern Islam
    Focuses on formations of Islam in colonial and postcolonial periods. How modernist and Islamist thinkers have negotiated the encounter between tradition and modernity.
  • GRS RN 622: History of Judaism
    This class surveys Jewish history from the classical period to modern times. It covers: the destruction of the 1st Temple; the encounter with Hellenism; the Roman period; the destruction of the 2nd Temple; the rise and influence of rabbinic Judaism; the medieval era under Muslim and Christian rule; medieval antisemitism; Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah); and philosophy (Maimonides). For the modern era we will discuss: the Renaissance; the Reformation; the complex issue of Emancipation; coming to America; the growth of American Judaism; religious reform; modern antisemitism; and Zionism. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Critical Thinking

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