Welcome to the home page for Physics 510 offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the study and development of computational techniques and numerical algorithms leading to computer simulations of various physical processes. Computation now constitutes a third means, along with theory and experimentation, in the endeavor of current physics research.

Instructor: Dr. Paul So
Office: Krasnow Institute, Rm 114
Phone: 993-4377
email: paso@gmu.edu
Office Hours: Thursday 4:30-5:30pm

 Lecture Place: ST I, Rm 310 Krasnow Institute, Conf Rm
Lecture Time: Tuesday, 7:00 (earlier) - 9:40pm

Grading:
  • Assignments: 65%
  • Exams: Midterm - 15%, Final - 20%
Suggested Text Book (There are no required text book for this course.):
  1. Press, W.H. et al. Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing, 3rd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  2. Landau, Rubin H., Paez, Manuel J. and Bordeianu Cristian C. A Survey of Computational Physics: Introductory Computational Science, Princeton University Press, 2008
Suggested Supplementary Books:
  1. Sauer, Timothy Numerical Analysis, Pearson, Addison Wesley, 2006
  2. DeVries, Paul L. A First Course in Computational Physics, John Riley and Sons, 1994
  3. Garcia, A. L. Numerical Methods for Physics, Prentice Hall, 1994.
Other suggested references see Reading Resources

Course Objectives

The objectives of this course are:
  1. to familiarize students with a variety of computational techniques of benefit to physicists,
  2. to develop in students a capability to use computational techniques in the solution of physical problems,
  3. to provide the background in computational physics and computational techniques so that students may progress to more advance courses in computational physics.

Computer Literacy Topics

One of the goals in this course is to expose students to a variety of computational topics and techniques that make a physicist computer literate. The only means of becoming computer literate is to actual do the work on a computer. Therefore, it is essential that students plan to spend time on one or several different computer systems to develop some proficiency with computers.

GMU Computer System Accounts and Information GMU IT Services

MatLab Resources

Assignment Policy

In this course, we will utilize two types of assignments as shown below.
  1. Individual Assignments:
    • Individual assignments will be placed on this Web site in the section entitled Assignments, along with a submission date.
    • Each member of the class is responsible for completing the assignment without outside assistance from members of the class or others, unless specifically stated that assistance is permitted.
    • Written assignments are to be done using the format given in the document Written Presentation Format.
    • Assignments are to be submitted to the instructor on or before the announced deadline for the particular assignment.
    • Some individual assignments will contain parts that are specified as presentation items. Thus in addition to the written presentation, each student is expected to prepare an oral presentation according to the format given in the document Oral Presentation Format, for those parts of the assignment so designated.
  2. Team Assignments:
    • Each member of the class will be assigned to a team, hopefully not to exceed three members. Individuals will be assigned to teams specifically on the basis of technical capabilities, so as to make roughly comparable teams from a technical point of view.
    • Team assignments will be placed on this Web site in the section below entitled Assignments, along with a submission date.
    • Teams are to work together under their own leadership to prepare the assignment for both a written presentation, according to the format given in the document Written Presentation Format, and an oral presentation, according to the format given in the document Oral Presentation Format.
    • One written presentation is expected from each team for all parts of the assignment.
    • Each team is to prepare a presentation for all parts of the assignment.
    • Over the semester each member of the team should do approximately an equal number of the presentations. No team member should do all of the oral presentations during the semester, while another team member prepares the written presentations.
    • Effort must be shared among the members of the team on all parts of the work.

Routines in C provided in Numerical Recipe in C are intended to be examples and illustrations for materials discussed. You are welcome to modify them and to implement them into your assignments and projects. However, as with any borrowed computer programs, you should thoroughly test them for their intended purpose.

Examinations

A midterm examination and a final examination will be given at appropriate times during the semester. The midterm and the final examinations will constitute respectively 15% and 20% of the final grade for the course.