Courses

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

• CAS PY 421: Introduction to Computational Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY351) or consent of instructor. - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY313 OR CASPY351) AND CASPY355); or consent of instructor. - Uncertainty principle; Schrödinger wave equation and applications; operators; hermitian operators and unitary transformations; harmonic oscillator; angular momentum and spin; hydrogen atom.
• CAS PY 501: Mathematical Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA226 & CASPY355) or equivalent. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASMA226 & CASPY355) or equivalent. - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY451 & CASPY452) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY451 & CASPY452) - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY511) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY511) - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY405) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY405) - 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 536: Quantum Computing
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASCS330 OR CASPY354) or equivalent. - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY355 OR METAD685) or equivalent; or consent of instructor. - 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
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY410) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY410) - 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.
• CAS PY 542: Statistical Mechanics II
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY541) or equivalent. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY541) - Continuation of CAS PY 541; emphasis on applications. Phase transitions: thermodynamic theory of phase transitions, mean field theories (Landau theory). Fluctuations: equilibrium fluctuations, instabilities, fluctuation dissipation theories. Elementary kinetic theory: mean free path approach, Boltzmann equation. Stochastic mathematics: probability theory, Markoff processes, Gaussian processes. Brownian motion: Langevin equations, Fokker-Planck equation.
• CAS PY 543: Introduction to Solid State Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY406 & CASPY410 & CASPY451) or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY406 & CASPY410 & CASPY451) - An introduction to crystal structure; lattice vibrations; electronic energy bands and Fermi surfaces; semiconductors, conductors, and insulators; superconductivity and magnetism.
• CAS PY 551: Introduction to Particle Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY451 & CASPY452) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY451 & CASPY452) - Fundamental particles and their symmetries. Isospin and flavor. Discrete symmetries. Phenomenology of weak and strong interactions. Introduction to detector techniques.
• CAS PY 555: Cosmological Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY406 & CASPY408) , or consent of instructor. CAS PY 410 is recommended but not required . - Early universe cosmology: inflation, thermodynamics in an expanding universe with radiation, matter, vacuum energy. Growth of density perturbations, cosmic microwave background, large scale structure. The cosmological standard model and open questions, dark matter, dark energy, neutrinos.
• CAS PY 565: Dynamics of Nonlinear Systems
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Introduces the modern approach to the dynamics of nonlinear systems, which approach is often called "nonlinear science," a term that stresses the interdisciplinary applications of nonlinear dynamics that go well beyond classical mechanics to include examples from all the natural sciences, engineering, and even social sciences and medicine. Organized around three "paradigms" of nonlinear science: (1) chaos and fractals; 2) "solitons" and coherent structures; and 3) patterns and pattern selection and will involve analytical, computational, and experimental studies.
• CAS PY 571: Introduction to Biological Physics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY410 OR CASCH352) may be taken concurrently as a co-requisite. - Introduction to biomolecular forces, energy flow, information and thermodynamics in biological systems. Nucleic acid, protein, and biomembrane structure. Mechanisms of transport and signaling in biological membranes. Biophysical techniques including spectroscopy. Emphasis on the physical principles underlying biological structure and function.
• CAS PY 581: Advanced Laboratory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASPY351) First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Classical experiments in atomic and nuclear physics, development of new experiments, basic research projects. Experiments include magnetic resonance, nuclear-decay studies, Zeeman effect, holography, black-body radiation, X-ray diffraction, Mossbauer studies, and flux quantization, positron annihilation. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS PY 713: Quantum Field Theory 1
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY511 & CASPY512) - Provides an introduction to the techniques of quantum field theory with applications to high-energy and condensed-matter physics. Topics include field equations and quantization of many-body systems; Green function and linear response theory; S-matrix and scattering theory; path integration; perturbation expansions and the Feynman rules; renormalization and effective field theories; epsilon expansion and critical exponents.
• CAS PY 714: Quantum Field Theory 2
  Graduate Prerequisites: (GRSPY713 & GRSPY751) or equivalent. - A continuation of GRS PY 713 for particle physicists. Topics include relativistic fields; LSZ formalism; the Lorentz group; quantum electrodynamics; non-Abelian gauge symmetry; spontaneous symmetry breaking; Goldstone's theorem; the Higgs mechanism; the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model.
• CAS PY 731: Theory of Relativity
  Graduate Prerequisites: (CASPY521 & CASPY522 & CASPY531) or consent of instructor. - An introduction to general relativity: the principle of equivalence; Riemannian geometry; Einstein's field equation; the Schwarzschild solution; the Newtonian limit; experimental tests; black holes; cosmology.