Physics 223B: Condensed Matter Physics

Lecture Tuesday, Thursday 2:00 - 3:15 PM, Girvetz 2135

Instructor: Leon Balents
Email: balents@physics.ucsb.edu
Phone: 893-5670
Office Hours:
TBA in KITP 2315
Call or email me to meet at another time.

Teaching Assistant: Gang Chen
Office Hours:

Problem sets:



This course is the second of three quarters of introduction to condensed matter physics. It focuses on the electronic physics beyond of solids beyond band theory. Main topics:

Textbook (reference)

Ashcroft and Mermin, "Solid State Physics", is recommended but not required.

Prerequisites:

Physics 223A or equivalent. Basic quantum mechanics, including angular momentum, spin, the hydrogen atom, quantum statistics, and perturbation theory. Some elementary statistical mechanics and electromagnetism is assumed.

Grades

Homework (60% of final grade).

Final Report (40% of final grade): Students will work in groups of 3-4 to prepare a report and presentation to the class on a topic agreed upon by them and the instructor, of recent or current interest in electronic condensed matter physics.

Final report: please look at the archive of articles on the website for the journal club for condensed matter physics here :

Notes from Winter 2007 (last year):

Lecture Topic Notes
1 Magnetism and Hund's rules. pdf
2 Physics behind Hund's rules. pdf
3 Atomic nomenclature. Curie behavior. Review 2nd quantization. pdf
4 Direct exchange: H$_2$ molecule. pdf
5 Direct exchange: Degenerate perturbation theory. Mott transition. Indirect exchange. pdf
6 Magnetic ordering. Ground states and spin waves in Heisenberg ferromagnet. pdf
7 More spin waves. Universality of k2 behavior. Inelastic neutron scattering. pdf
8 Spin waves and Bloch T3/2 law. Begin Mean Field Theory (MFT). pdf
9 More MFT. Solution and critical exponents. pdf
10 Finish MFT: universality. Start quantum antiferromagnets. pdf
11 Quantum antiferromagnets. These notes contain extra material not covered in class on the Holstein-Primakoff approach, as well as the equation of motion approach taken in class. pdf
12 Magnetism in conducting systems. RKKY interaction. Kondo effect. pdf
13 Superfluidity. Properties, BEC and order parameter theory. pdf

Papers on imaging vortices in superfluid helium


Last modified: Mon Jan 07 10:27:27 Pacific Standard Time 2008