PHYS 5210

Fall 2024

Graduate Classical Mechanics


Course Information:


Lectures:

  • Lecture 1 (August 26): Principle of least action
  • Lecture 2 (August 28): Symmetry groups
  • Lecture 3 (August 30): Noether's Theorem
  • Lecture 4 (September 4): Time-translation and boost symmetries
  • Lecture 5 (September 6): Diatomic molecule
  • Lecture 6 (September 9): Relativistic particles
  • Lecture 7 (September 11): Relativistic charged particles
  • Lecture 8 (September 13): Configuration space
  • Lecture 9 (September 16): Configuration space of a rigid body
  • Lecture 10 (September 18): Euler's equations
  • Lecture 11 (September 20): Euler angles
  • Lecture 12 (September 23): Lagrangian field theory
  • Lecture 13 (September 25): Klein-Gordon equation
  • Lecture 14 (September 27): Noether's Theorem in field theory
  • Lecture 15 (September 30): Electromagnetism
  • Lecture 16 (October 2): Coupling electromagnetism to matter
  • Lecture 17 (October 4): Effective field theory of solids
  • Lecture 18 (October 7): Elastic stress tensor
  • Lecture 19 (October 9): Sound waves in solids
  • Lecture 20 (October 11): Hamiltonian mechanics
  • Lecture 21 (October 14): Poisson brackets
  • Lecture 22 (October 16): Canonical transformations
  • Lecture 23 (October 18): Noether's Theorem in Hamiltonian mechanics
  • Lecture 24 (October 21): Symplectic geometry
  • Lecture 25 (October 23): Rigid body rotation in Hamiltonian mechanics
  • Lecture 26 (October 25): Hamiltonian field theory
  • Lecture 27 (October 28): Generating functions for canonical transformations
  • Lecture 28 (October 30): Hamilton-Jacobi equation
  • Lecture 29 (November 1): Action-angle variables
  • Lecture 30 (November 4): Adiabatic theorem
  • Lecture 31 (November 6): Integrable systems
  • Lecture 32 (November 8): Perturbation theory: one degree of freedom
  • Lecture 33 (November 11): Perturbation theory: many degrees of freedom
  • Lecture 34 (November 13): Perturbation theory: higher order
  • Lecture 35 (November 15): Henon-Heiles Hamiltonian
  • Lecture 36 (November 18): Kicked rotor
  • Lecture 37 (November 20): Logistic map
  • Lecture 38 (November 22): Linear stability analysis
  • Lecture 39 (December 2): Period doubling
  • Lecture 40 (December 4): Butterfly effect
  • Lecture 41 (December 6): Fractals
  • Lecture 42 (December 9): Fractal attractor in the logistic map
  • Lecture 43 (December 11): KAM Theorem

Homework:


Exam:

  • Exam (due December 16)