Corso di laurea in Fisica

It is suitable for third year or good second year students who have reasonable understanding of the english language.

This course is taught entirely in english by a native speaker. It is suitable for third year or good second year students who have reasonable understanding of the english language. Students may ask questions in either english or italian, though the replies will be in english.

The aim of the course is to give an in depth introduction to the most important arguments of the theory of special relativity due to Einstein whilst providing practice in the use of the english language.

Conoscenza e capacita` di comprensione (knowledge and understanding).

Students will acquire knowledge of Lorentz transformations, aa applied to many physical systems. They will understand the importance of abstract tensor language and the covariant tensor form of all physical equations.

Capacita` di applicare conoscenza e comprensione (applying knowledge and understanding)

Students will learn how to apply their knowledge of abstract tensor language to many physical systems. They will understand the importance of the covariant formalism and be able, for example, to construct constants expressed as Lorentz invariants.

 

Written exams lasting three hours, with some choice of questions, and one oral exam.

Examinations consist of one three hour written exam, with some choice of questions, and one oral exam. The questions in both will be in english, but students may respond in english or in italian.

This course is taught entirely in english by a native speaker. The aim of the course is to give an introduction to the most important arguments of the theory of Einstein whilst providing practice in the use of the english language.

It is suitable for third year or good second year students who have reasonable understanding of the english language.

Students may ask questions in either english or italian, though the replies will be in english.

The duration of the course is 48 hours, 24  lessons, two hours each, starting April 20th. Lectures are held at Physics,  via Pietro Giuria 1, 4pm to 6pm, but dates and times are flexible.

The course programme is as follows.

Historical Introduction
Lorentz Transformations and their physical consequences
Tensors, spinors and the Lorentz group
Energy and Momentum

The Compton effect, light aberration and the relativistic extreme
Maxwell's equations
The Klein-Gordon and Schrodinger equations

For further information please contact the Course Lecturer

Examinations consist of one three hour written exam, with some choice of questions, and one oral exam. The questions in both will be in english, but students may respond in english or in italian.
Previous exams

Course books- there are many, but I recommend Weinberg "Gravitation and Cosmology" Part One Landau and Lifschitz "Course of Theoretical Physics" Volume 2-Classical Theory of Fields, chapters 1-4 Rindler "Special Relativity" chapters I-VI and the Appendix. Penrose and Rindler "Spinors and space time"