700 level courses

Classroom locations have changed recently. Please consult your MINERVA course schedule for up-to-date information.

Not all courses are offered every year. Please see the current academic schedule on Minerva.

PHYS 700 Preliminary Ph.D. Examination

• Fall term

An examination that must be passed by all doctoral candidates in order to continue in the doctoral program.

PHYS 717 Many-body Physics

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits

Real-time and imaginary-time Green functions; Diagrammatic perturbation theory; Quantum linear response and Kubo formulae; Path-integral techniques; Fermi gas; Impurity averaging; Interacting electron gas; Magnetism; Phonons & electron-phonon interaction; Superconductivity; Luttinger liquids

PHYS 718 Special Topics: Solid State Physics 1

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• 3 hours

Specialized discussion of some current problems in solid state physics.

PHYS 719 Special Topics: Solid State Physics 2

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• 3 hours

Specialized discussion of some current problems in solid state physics.

PHYS 729 Special Topics in Nuclear Physics

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits

Specialized discussion of some current problems in nuclear physics.

PHYS 730 Special Topics: High Energy Physics 1

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• 3 hours

Specialized discussion of some current problems in theoretical particle physics.

PHYS 731 Special Topics: High Energy Physics 2

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• 3 hours

Specialized discussion of some current problems in theoretical particle physics.

PHYS 741 Superstring Theory

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• Prerequisite: PHYS 610.

Introduction to the main concepts and tools of modern string theory. Overview of the perturbative worldsheet description of bosonic and supersymmetric string theories. Various concepts in two dimensional conformal field theory. Introduction to the non-perturbative physics of string theory, including D-branes, compactifications and duality.

PHYS 742 Introduction to the Standard Model

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• Prerequisite: PHYS 610.

Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Review of field theory preliminaries. Phenomenology such as decay of Z and W bosons, heavy lepton decay, scattering and the Z resonance, with development of computational methods as needed. Effective field theories, bound states in QCD, QCD interactions and possible extension of the standard model.

PHYS 743 Very Early Universe

• Fall term
• 3 credits
• Prerequisite: PHYS 514, General Relativity.
• Corequisite: PHYS 610, Quantum Field Theory 1.

Introduction to key tools used in current research in theoretical cosmology, including (i) Review of Standard Big Bang Cosmology, (ii) Inflationary Universe Models, (iii) Theory of Cosmological Perturbations, (iv) Quantum Field Theory Methods of Cosmology. (v) Topological Defects in Cosmology, (vi) Superstring Cosmology.

Instructor for 2024/25: R. Brandenberger (Fall)

PHYS 744 Finite Temperature Field Theory

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• Prerequisite: PHYS 610.

Tools of finite temperature (relativistic) field theory. Thermodynamics, introducing bosonic and fermionic Euclidean path integrals. Pressure in a free theory, the perturbative expansion, thermal masses, and symmetry restoration.Schwinger-Keldysh contour path integral and its perturbative expansion. Collective phenomena such as dispersion corrections, plasma oscillations, Debye screening and Landau damping.

PHYS 745 Supersymmetry and Supergravity

• Not offered in 2024/25
• 3 credits
• Prerequisite: PHYS 610.

Introduction to supersymmetry and supergravity, including the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Basic formalism of supersymmetry (SUSY) transformations and the superfield formalism, simple SUSY models, the MSSM and its phenomenology, mechanisms for breaking supersymmetry, introduction to 4-D supergravity.