Winter 2008   General information  Physics 427A

INSTRUCTOR: Prof. David Thouless.  I can usually be reached by e-mail 
at thouless@u.washington.edu, but my access to e-mail may be difficult 
between December 6, 2007, and January 10, 2008. My office is in the 
Physics and Astronomy Building, B423 (fourth floor of the building to the 
right of the Physics Tower).

SUBJECT MATTER:  My title for the course is Modern Physics and the 
Modern World. This course is intended to explore developments in 
physics since 1930, after the revolution that began with the discovery of 
X-rays and radioactivity, and culminated in quantum mechanics was 
completed and widely understood by young scientists.  It is intended as a 
400 level course with modest prerequisites, such as some familiarity with 
modern atomic and quantum physics, electromagnetism, and thermal physics, 
at the introductory level.  The course should cover topics where new 
physics has led to new advances in technology or in other branches of 
science or knowledge.  It is not intended to include advances that are 
primarily applications of earlier physics, such as the development of 
X-ray tomography, electron microscopy, or the structure of DNA, even 
though they were brought about by those trained as physicists, in many 
cases working in physics laboratories;  Francis Crick, one of the 
discoverers of the double helix, was such a person.

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION: The course will involve a combination of brief 
lectures on the basic science underlying technological advances such as 
integrated semiconductor circuits, lasers, nuclear resonance, 
superconducting magnets, and magnetic memories, together with student led 
discussions of how the fundamental physics relates to the actual 
applications.  I hope also to cover some advances that have led to 
important porgress in other areas of knowledge, such as cosmology, 
astrophysics, and precision measurement.  In honor of the 2007 Nobel Prize 
award I think we should start by discussing advances in magnetism fairly 
early in the course, so do some reading and web-browsing on this in the 
first week of next quarter.

CLASS TIMES: times to be arranged.  I will arrange a class meeting on 
Friday, January 11 to finalize class arrangements.  Please send me a 
message with your constraints and preferences if you are taking this 
class.  I should be available at any time from 9 am onwards on that day.

PREREQUISITES: I expect students to be happy with the basic ideas of 
quantum theory, statistical mechanics, at the level of an introductory 
college physics course.

METHODS OF INSTRCTION: On average I hope to use about one third of the 
class time for lectures on the basic physics, one third for presentations, 
by the students, by me, or by an outside expert, on the applications of 
the "new" physics, and one third for discussion.  I aim to give guidance 
on finding the relevant literature, but I hope that the students will 
search for relevant and intelligible papers, and will share their 
discoveries with the rest of us.