Elements of quantum physics. Atomic and molecular physics. Physics of solids. Elements of special relativity.
Learning Objectives
Make the student acquainted with the main experiments and theories of the XX century physics and focus on the new interpretation of natural phenomena.
Prerequisites
Reccomened courses: Mathemathics I and II, Physics I and II, Mathematical methods for optics.
Teaching Methods
CFU:6
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, private study, examinations etc...): 150
Contact hours for attending lectures: 48
Type of Assessment
Oral exam
Course program
Elements of quantum physics.
Thermal radiation. Photoelectric effect. Compton effect. The concept of photon. Atomic models of Thompson, Rutherford and Bohr. Franck-Hertz and Stern-Gerlach experiments. Atom-radiation interaction. The laser. De Broglie's waves. Davisson and Germer experiment. Heisemberg uncertainty principle. Shroedinger equation, eigen- functions and eigen-values. One dimensional examples: a particle in a square well and the harmonic oscillator.
Shroedinger equation in a central field.
Elements of atomic physics.
Spherical coordinates, the gradient and laplacian operators.
Angular momentum. Shroedinger equation for hydrogen atom. Separation of variables. Spherical harmonics as wavefunctions of angular momentum. Solutions of the radial Shroedinger equation. Bound state energies for hydrogen atom.
A short description of helium atom.
Elements of molecular physics.
Hamiltonian of a molecule and the Born-Oppenheimer separation. Shroedinger equations for diatomic molecules. Effective potential and the lowest order expansion. Rotational motion for a rigid diatomic molecule. Pure rotational spectrum of a diatomic molecule. Vibrational motion of a diatomic molecule. Vibrational and roto-vibrational spectrum: P, Q and R bands.
Elements of solid state physics.
Specific heat of solids. Lattice modes. Thermal and transport properties due to lattice modes. Electron properties of crystal. Thermal and transport properties of the electrons.
Elements of special relativity.
Introduction to the definition of space and time in an inertial reference frame. Galileian transformations. Einstein relativity. Quadridimensional space-time. Lorentz transformations. Quadri-vectors. Relativity of simultaneity. Relativistic length contraction and time dilation. Proper time.
Velocity addition. Description of physics laws by means of quadrivectors. Momentum-energy quadrivector. Rest mass and energy, relativistic mass. Relativistic Doppler effect. Relativistic aberration of light.