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Course Description for
Special
relativity and Modern physics
Part One
The theory of special relativity: What is the
theory of relativity? Difficulties in science before relativity. Frame
of reference. Galilean addition law of velocity.
The speed of light, The Ether, Michelson-Morely experiment.
Einstein's principle of relativity, Describing events in relativity,
Time dilation, Length contraction, Lorentz transformation equation,
Inverse transformations, Results of Lorentz transformation: Lorentz
contraction, relativity of simultaneity, composition of velocity
Experimental evidence of special relativity: time dilation, Doppler
effect, Relativistic energy, and relativistic momentum, Variation of mass
with velocity, Relation between mass and energy, The relation between
energy of a particle and its momentum, Binding energy.
Part Two
The particle aspects of electromagnetic radiation:
Quantization in classical physics, The photoelectric effect, X-Ray
production and Bremsstrahlung, The Compton effect, Pair production and
annihilation, Photon-electron interactions, Absorption of photons.
The wave aspects of material particles: De
Broglie waves, The Bargg law, X-Ray and electron diffraction, The
principle of complementarity, The probability interpretation of De Broglie
waves, The uncertainty principle, Wave packets and the De Broglie wave
speed, The quantum description of a confined particle, The Schrödinger
equation, Particle in a box, The tunnel effect.
The
structure of the Hydrogen atom:
alpha-particle
scattering, The classical planetary model, The hydrogen spectrum, The Bohr
theory of hydrogen, Successes and failures of the Bohr theory, The
hydrogen atom and its wave functions from the Schrödinger equation.
Nuclear
structure: The nuclear constituents, Forces between nucleons, The
deuteron, Stable nuclei, Nuclear radii, The binding energy of stable
nuclei, The radioactive decay law, Gamma decay, Beta decay, Natural
radioactivity.
Course References
(1) Space
time physics by E. F. Taylor & J. A. Wheeler
(2)
Introduction to special relativity by R. Resnick
(3) Special
relativity by A. P. French
(4) Physics
for scientists and engineering with modern physics by R. A. Serway
(5) Was Einstein right? Putting general relativity to the test by C.
M. Will
(6) The
search for gravity waves by P. C. W. Davies
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