Welcome to the Many-body Quantum Physics course! This is the third quantum course following Quantum mechanics and Advanced quantum mechanics courses. Normal lectures in Nanotalo N161 from the 4th period onwards. Since the number of students won't be high, exercises will be taught normally in Nanotalo N228 (2nd floor along the corridor towards the main building) in the 4th period. Use masks. Masks are available in the Nanotalo entrance.

The course is taught by Prof. Päivi Törmä (with Jani-Petri Martikainen as TA). Structure of the course is:

  • 3 hours of lectures/week (wednesday morning in Nanotalo N161)
  • 2 hour exercise session/week (friday 12-14 in Nanotalo N228)
  • Two exams during the course (24.2 and 11.4, final exam for those who couldn't make it to midterms monday 31.5)
  • Since 1st exam only covers lectures 1-5, exams will be weighted with factors 2x5/12 and 2x7/12 respectively. 
  • You should get at least 6 points per exam to be able to pass the course. (Otherwise one might be able to pass without partcipating at all in the 2nd half.)
  • The first exam from lectures 1-6 and the second from 7-12. 
  • It is very important for teachers to get feedback from the course, in order to improve teaching. After last lecture, please fill the questionnaire and let Jani-Petri Martikainen know that you have done it. You will get 2 point bonus for that.
  •  Additional lecture material (chapters from books, except Liboff)  in MyCourses.  You do not necessarily need the book material: everything that comes to the exam is contained in the lecture notes. But if something remains unclear to you based on the lecture notes, or you are interested in learning more/deeper, then the book chapters can be useful.  
  • Points from exercises (0...13), exams (0...48), and feedback (0 or 2)

The course focuses on many aspects of quantum many-body physics in contrast to earlier courses where focus was on single particle quantum mechanics. You will get an overview of some of the most fascinating research topics in quantum many-body physics. Featuring, for example...

  • time-dependent perturbation theory
  • field quantization
  • interaction of a two-level system with a quantized field
  • basics of many-body formalism
  • quantum coherence
  • Bose-Einstein condensation and Fermi condensates
  • quantum phase transitions

In case you want to know more send an email (jani-petri.martikainen@aalto.fi) or come for a visit (Nanotalo Puumiehenkuja 2,N201b).


Last modified: Thursday, 7 April 2022, 9:08 AM