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Good day,
I'm starting my master in physics, and it's time for me to choose my courses. I've decided that I probably want to pursue the direction of quantum information processing, and I'm trying to pick my courses with that in mind. For my first semester I'll be taking four courses: Quantum Optics, Quantum Information Theory, a mandatory social science course and the fourth course, which will either be Statistical Physics or QFT I. Now, I'm finding it very hard to decide as both have parts that will probably be very valuable, as well as topics that I don't really need to learn about, for now.
As for the actual contents of the courses:
Statistical Physics
QFT I:
Now I've already done some StatMech in my Bachelors degree, but definitely not as advanced as will be treated here. I know about Fermi Dirac and Bose Einstein, and the different canonical ensembles, but that's about it. When it comes to QFT, I guess I don't know anything about that really, only that a lot of people say it's only useful if I want to do theory, but I feel like that does not do it justice.
Note that taking both simultaneously does not work out schedule wise. I might be able to take the other course a year from now, although I'm not sure if that'll work out. If I left out anything important, please let me know!
I'm starting my master in physics, and it's time for me to choose my courses. I've decided that I probably want to pursue the direction of quantum information processing, and I'm trying to pick my courses with that in mind. For my first semester I'll be taking four courses: Quantum Optics, Quantum Information Theory, a mandatory social science course and the fourth course, which will either be Statistical Physics or QFT I. Now, I'm finding it very hard to decide as both have parts that will probably be very valuable, as well as topics that I don't really need to learn about, for now.
As for the actual contents of the courses:
Statistical Physics
Basics of phenomenological thermodynamics, three laws of thermodynamics.
Basics of kinetic gas theory: conservation laws, H-theorem, Boltzmann-Equations, Maxwell distribution.
Classical statistical physics: microcanonical ensembles, canonical ensembles and grandcanonical ensembles, applications to simple systems.
Quantum statistical physics: single particle, ideal quantum gases, fermions and bosons.
Bose-Einstein condensation: Bogolyubov theory, superfluidity.
Mean field and Landau theory: Ising model, Heisenberg model, Landau theory of phase transitions, fluctuations.
Critical phenomena: mean field, series expansions, scaling behavior, universality.
Renormalization group: fixed points, simple models.
Linear response theory: general formulation, response in mean field, sum rules, collective modes, fluctuation dissipation theorem.
Basics of kinetic gas theory: conservation laws, H-theorem, Boltzmann-Equations, Maxwell distribution.
Classical statistical physics: microcanonical ensembles, canonical ensembles and grandcanonical ensembles, applications to simple systems.
Quantum statistical physics: single particle, ideal quantum gases, fermions and bosons.
Bose-Einstein condensation: Bogolyubov theory, superfluidity.
Mean field and Landau theory: Ising model, Heisenberg model, Landau theory of phase transitions, fluctuations.
Critical phenomena: mean field, series expansions, scaling behavior, universality.
Renormalization group: fixed points, simple models.
Linear response theory: general formulation, response in mean field, sum rules, collective modes, fluctuation dissipation theorem.
QFT I:
This course discusses the quantisation of fields in order to introduce a coherent formalism for the combination of quantum mechanics and special relativity.
Topics include:
- Relativistic quantum mechanics
- Quantisation of bosonic and fermionic fields
- Interactions in perturbation theory
- Scattering processes and decays
- Radiative corrections
Topics include:
- Relativistic quantum mechanics
- Quantisation of bosonic and fermionic fields
- Interactions in perturbation theory
- Scattering processes and decays
- Radiative corrections
Now I've already done some StatMech in my Bachelors degree, but definitely not as advanced as will be treated here. I know about Fermi Dirac and Bose Einstein, and the different canonical ensembles, but that's about it. When it comes to QFT, I guess I don't know anything about that really, only that a lot of people say it's only useful if I want to do theory, but I feel like that does not do it justice.
Note that taking both simultaneously does not work out schedule wise. I might be able to take the other course a year from now, although I'm not sure if that'll work out. If I left out anything important, please let me know!