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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
The Final Exam has been graded and returned to you by email. Solutions to the Final Exam, as well as a histogram of exam scores, are posted on the Homework page. If you have any questions or complaints about how you were graded, you must contact me by noon Monday, May 11. I will be submitting grades to the registrar Monday afternoon. I hope you enjoyed the course, and hope that you will have a great summer!
Solutions to Problem Set 8 are now posted on the Homework page.
Notes for Lecture 28 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. The video of Lecture 28 is posted on Blackboard. Also posted are some supplemental notes [we did not go over this material in lecture] that discuss additional topics in critical phenomena, and why mean field theory fails for systems in fewer than four spatial dimensions. Today is the last day to request a letter grade in the course, instead of the default pass/fail grade. If you want a letter grade, submit your request using the form here. The course evaluation survey is now available on Blackboard. I would greatly appreciate your taking a few moments to complete the survey. Please add any comments concerning how you felt about the transition to online lectures. Your feedback is important. The FINAL EXAM will be next week Wednesday, May 6, from 12:30 - 3:30pm. We will proceed with the exam in the same way we did for the Midterm Exam. I will email you the exam at 12:30pm, and post it on the Homework page of this website at the same time. You will have until 3:30pm to work on the exam, then an additional 45 min to scan/photo your work and email it back to me at stte@pas.rochester.edu by 4:15pm. Make sure you are confident in you scanning/photographing/emailing abilities before the exam! If you anticipate there might be some problem, please let me know in advance. Please use a dark pen or pencil so that your scan/photo comes out sharp and clear. The Final Exam will consist of three or four problems. It will cover the entire course, but with an emphasis on material since the Midterm Exam. There will not be any questions concerning our last topic of phase transitions. The exam will be closed book, closed notes, and you may not make use of any resources or consult with any others. There will be a Zoom meeting during the time of the exam so that you may use the chat feature to ask any questions, I will send the link by email a day or two before the exam. If you have any questions while you study for the final exam, feel free to contact me. You can send your question by email, or we can arrange a private zoom meeting to discuss. I will hold my usual zoom office hour next week Tuesday, 2 - 3pm.
Video of Lecture 27 is now posted on Blackboard. Revised notes for Lecture 27 on the Lecture Notes page.
Notes for Monday's Lecture 27 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Solutions to Problem Set 7 are now posted on the Homework page.
Problem Set 8, due Wednesday, April 29, by 10am uploaded to Blackboard, is now posted on the Homework wpage. This set has four interesting and non-trivial problems on it, so please do not wait until the night before they are due before starting to work on them! Revised notes for Lecture 26 are available on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 26 is posted on Blackboard.
Notes for the upcoming Lecture 26 on Wednesday are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video for Lecture 25 is posted on Blackboard.
Notes for the upcoming Lecture 25 on Monday are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video for Lecture 24 is posted on Blackboard. Solutions to Problem Set 6 are posted on the Homework page. Problem Set 7 is due Wednesday, April 22, by 10am uploaded to Blackboard.
Problem Set 7, due Wednesday, April 22, by 10am uploaded to Blackboard, is now posted on the Homework page. There will be one additional Problem Set 8, due Wednesday, April 29.
Lecture on Wednesday is canceled. There will be a make-up lecture this Friday at 10:25am. Notes for the upcoming Lecture 24 on Friday are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video for Lecture 23 is posted on Blackboard.
The College has extended the deadline for requesting a letter grade in spring courses to Wednesday, April 29, the last day of classes. If you wish to receive a letter grade for this course, instead of the default pass/fail, you must submit a formal request via the College’s webform. Lecture next week Wednesday, April 15, is canceled. There will be a make-up lecture next week Friday, April 17, at 10:25am. Notes for the upcoming Lecture 23 on Monday are posted on the Lecture Notes page. There have been some changes to the notes for Lecture 22, so if you downloaded them earlier, you might wish to check again. Video of Lecture 22 is posted on Blackboard. Problem Set 6 is due next week Wednesday, April 15, by 10am.
Notes for the upcoming Lecture 22 on Wednesday have been posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 21 is posted on Blackboard.
The Midterm Exam has been graded and will be returned to you by email. Solutions to the Midterm are posted on the Homework page, as well as a histogram of exam scores. A new Problem Set 6, due Wednesday, April 15, by 10am, uploaded to Blackboard, is now posted on the Homework page. If you wish to receive a letter grade for this course, instead of the default pass/fail, you must submit a formal request via the College’s webform by the deadline of Friday April 10.
The Midterm Exam is this Friday, April 3, from 10:30am to 12:30pm, with all work due emailed back to me by 1:15pm. See the entry below for further information. If you have any questions about the mechanics of receiving and submitting the exam, please let me know as soon as possible. If you anticipate any problems with internet connectivity at the time of the exam, also please let me know. There will be a Zoom meeting for the exam from 10:30am to 12:30pm so you can ask any questions you might have, and hear any replies or announcements I make in response. But you are not required to join the Zoom, i.e. I am not using it for proctoring purposes. If you wish to receive a letter grade for this course, instead of the default pass/fail, you must submit a formal request via the College’s webform by the deadline of Friday April 10. Notes for the upcoming Lecture 21 on Monday have been posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 20 is posted on Blackboard.
Solutions to Problem Set 5 are now posted on the Homework page. Notes for the upcoming Lecture 20 on Wednesday have been posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 19 is posted on Blackboard. This Friday, April 3, will be the Midterm Exam. I will email you the exam at 10:30am, and post it on the Homework page of this website at the same time. You will have until 12:30pm to work on the exam, then an additional 45 min to scan/photo your work and email it back to me at stte@pas.rochester.edu by 1:15pm. Make sure you are confident in you scanning/photographing/emailing abilities before the exam! If you anticipate there might be some problem, please let me know in advance. Please use a dark pen or pencil so that your scan/photo comes out sharp and clear. The Midterm Exam will consist of three problems, and cover material through the end of Lecture 16, i.e., everything up to, but not including, quantum ensembles. There will be a Zoom meeting during the time of the exam so that you may use the chat feature to ask any questions. All Zoom links can be found on the Blackboard Home Page for the course.
Notes for the upcoming Lecture 19 on Monday are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 18 is posted on Blackboard.
Notes for the upcoming Lecture 18 on Friday are now posted on the Lecture Notes page. Video of Lecture 17 is posted on Blackboard.
A video of Lecture 16 has now been posted to Blackboard. To view it, choose "Streaming Video" from the Blackboard sidebar menu. Videos of future lectures will also be posted here.
Problem Set 5, due Monday, March 30, by 10am, uploaded to Blackboard, is now posted on the Homework page. Solutions to Problem Set 4 are posted on the Homework page. Notes for Lecture 17 on Wednesday are now on the Lecture Notes page. Recall, we will have a make-up lecture this Friday at 10:25am. For the Zoom link for Tuesday office hours, and for Lectures 17 and 18 on Wednesday and Friday, please see the Announcements on the course's Home Page on Blackboard, or the email message I sent you. The MIDTERM EXAM on Friday, April 3, 10:30-12:30pm, will cover all material through the end of Lecture 16.
The Midterm Exam has been scheduled for Friday, April 3, at 10:30am EDT (eastern daylight savings time). You will have two hours to work on the exam, and then 45 additional minutes to scan or photograph your work and email it back to me (stte@pas.rochester.edu). So all work is due back to me by email by 1:15pm EDT. I will be emailing you the exam as a pdf file promptly at 10:30am, so make sure you have email access at that time. If, for some reason, servers or email is slow and you do not receive the exam until 10 min later or so, that is not a problem since I've given you 45 extra minutes at the end. If you experience any problem receiving the exam in a timely manner you must contact me immediately. The exam will also, at the same time, be posted on the Homework page of this website as backup. I am also planning to run a Zoom meeting during the time of the exam so that you may ask any questions -- please use the chat feature of Zoom if you wish to ask a question. I will send the Zoom link as the exam approaches. As per direction from the Dean of the College, this course will now be graded as pass/fail. If you wish instead to receive a letter grade for the course, you must contact the department's Graduate Coordinator, Laura Blumkin, by April 3. If you choose the letter grade option, that cannot be revoked later. Similarly, if you stay with the pass/fail option, that too cannot be revoked. I hope everyone is staying healthy and managing well!
The College has delayed the resumption of classes until Monday, March 23. Lecture this Wednesday is therefore canceled, and we will have the next Lecture 16 by Zoom at 10:25am EDT on Monday. The link to connect to Zoom for this meeting remains the same as before. Please see the email I sent you, or look on the PHY 418 Blackboard Home Page, for the link. Because classes have been delayed, I have also extended the due date for Problem Set 4 until Monday, March 23, 10am. You must upload your homework via the Blackboard system, as explained here. The Midterm Exam is similarly being delayed to the week of March 30. I am still working to find a day and time. I have also set up two discussion forums for the class on Blackboard. One is for questions to me (Prof. Teitel), the other is for questions to Anton (our TA). In both cases you should only post comments that you don't mind if the whole class sees them. For private communications you should email me or Anton directly.
We have decided that homework should be submitted electronically via the Blackboard system, rather than by email. Click here for updated information on how to submit your homework. Our first Zoom lecture will be this Wednesday, March 18, at 10:25am. Please see the email I sent you, or the PHY 418 Announcements page on Blackboard to find the Zoom link in order to join the meeting. The Announcements page is the one labeled "Home Page" in the Blackboard side navigation bar.
Starting next week Wednesday, the course will continue forward in its new online version! Click here for information about how the online course will be managed. This is an experiment! So I ask for your patience and suggestions as we try to make things work in a useful fashion.
As you probably know, the University has decided that, due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, all in-person classes are canceled for the remainder of the semester. We will therefore have to continue the class in some online format. I am currently trying to figure out a reasonable way to do that. More details will be sent to you soon. The first online class will be Wednesday, March 18, at our regular lecture time of 10:25am. A likely method of proceeding will be to use the Zoom app for video conferencing. So I recommend that you download the Zoom app in advance, and see that you have it working on your platform of choice. Further information about Zoom can be found at: https://tech.rochester.edu/zoom-for-instruction/ Problem Set 4 remains due by 4pm on Wednesday, March 18. If you are on campus, please put it in the homework locker as usual. If you are not on campus, or are otherwise indisposed, please make a clear scan or photo of your work and email it to our TA, apeshkov@ur.rochester.edu, with a copy to me. I would appreciate knowing who will likely be on campus and who will not, so please send me that information if you know. But the class will remain accessible to all no mater where your location.
Solutions to Problem Set 3 are now posted on the Homework page.
Problem Set 4, due Wednesday March 18, by 4pm in the homework locker, is now posted on the Homework page.
Notes through lecture 15 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Another change to this week's schedule! Wednesday lecture will be held as scheduled. It is no longer canceled.
There has been a change in next week's schedule. The guest lecture on entropy and information by Prof. Ghoshal will take place on Monday March 2, regular time and place. The lecture on Wednesday March 4 is canceled. Make-up lectures on Fridays March 27 and April 3 will take place in BL 270. Notes through lecture 14 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Another make-up lecture will take place this week on Wednesday, February 26, at 9:00-10:15 am in BL 270. Our regular Wednesday lecture will follow. Two additional make-up lectures will take place on Fridays, March 27 and April 3, at 10:25-11:40 am, room to be announced (there will be no graduate seminar on those days). Solutions to Problem Set 2 are now posted on the Homework page. Notes through lecture 11 are posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Problem Set 3, due Wednesday March 4, by 4pm in the homework locker, is now posted on the Homework page. Note, the lecture on Monday, March 2, is canceled. Lecture on Wednesday, March 4, will be given by guest lecturer Prof. Gourab Ghoshal. Our TA, Anton, will be out of town from March 1 - 6. I will be out of town from March 1 - 13. You may still send email if you have questions.
By popular request, the due date for Problem Set 2 has been moved to Monday, February 24, by 4pm in the homework locker. Future homework assignments will generally be due on Mondays by 4pm. Notes through lecture 10 are posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Our first make-up lecture will be this week, Wednesday February 19, at 9:00am in BL 270. The regular Wednesday lecture will continue at 10:25am in BL 269. Solutions to Problem Set 1 are now posted on the Homework page. Notes through lecture 8 are posted on the Lecture Notes page, The Midterm Exam has been scheduled for Wednesday March 25 at 9:30am. We will start in BL 270, and then at 10:15 will move to our usual room BL 269. The exam will end at 11:40am.
Problem Set 2, due Friday, February 21, by 2pm in the homework locker, is now posted on the Homework page.
Notes through lecture 7 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Notes through lecture 6 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Problem Set 1, due next week Friday, February 14, by 2pm in the homework locker, is now posted on the Homework page. Notes through lecture 5 are posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Notes through lecture 3 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Notes through lecture 2 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Notes for lecture 1 are now posted on the Lecture Notes page.
Welcome to Statistical Mechnics I! For those who are anxious to read ahead, you can find lecture notes and problem sets from the last two years that I taught this course at: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~stte/phy418S18 |