1. Office Hours Next week Monday 2:00 to 3:00 Tuesday 1:00 to 3:30 Wednesday 8:45 to 9:45 Contact me if you need to meet at some time other than that and we should be able to arrange something.

2. P301 Final Exam Review This file describes some of details of the final exam and summarizes the key points since exam II. It also contains copies of the review slides you saw before exam I and II; it also Time: Wed. 16 Dec. 2009 at 10:15 in the P301 classroom (SW 218) Should be roughly 16 “questions” (6 points each, or ~60% longer than the mid-term exams). Coverage: Comprehensive Roughly 10 questions on new stuff, 3 questions from each of the first two sections of the course. Two formula sheets (8.5x11 piece of paper; single sided) will be allowed. My exam philosophy going into the final is much as it was described for the first exam (see a few slides down). The key is for you to know what observations are behind our current understanding of the Universe, and to be able to perform basic calculations regarding those ideas. For the most part, I am not asking you to memorize a lot of random facts, but I will expect you to have identified a number of the key facts and ideas.

3. P301 Final Exam Review Important results/topics: Chapters 10-11 (5 lectures): Formation of molecular orbitals and bands in collections of atoms Binding energy: role of both fundamental forces and confinement energy. Excitations in molecules: Electronic, Vibrational, rotational; and selection rules for transitions among these states. Properties of materials determined by low-energy excitations of the system (quasiparticles) Hall effect, thermoelectric effects, (Field Effect) transistors, integrated circuits Role of impurities in semiconductors Lasers: metastable states, population inversion, stimulated emission Boltzmann factor Quantum wave functions as representations in “Hilbert Space” (qualitative aspects only).

4. P301 Final Exam Review Important results/topics: Chapters 12-13 (5.5 lectures): Discovery of the neutron, positron, and the various types of radiation Properties and phenomenology of  radiation Shielding Transmutations associated with each Neutrinos and their role in beta decay Size and composition of nuclei Nuclear stability: variation of nuclear binding energy per nucleon with position in the periodic table; magic numbers Biological effects of radiation (dose, dose equivalent, cancer, etc.) Radioactive decay (half-life, decay constant, activation build-up) The use of cross-sections in determining/describing reaction rates Applications of nuclear physics Nuclear power (energy balance calculations, chain reaction, etc.) Neutron activation Radiometric dating

5. P301 Final Exam Review Important results/topics: Chapters 14-16 (2.5 lectures): Functioning of various types of particle detectors Standard model (participating particles and interactions) Quarks, leptons, interaction-mediating bosons Baryons, mesons, antiparticles etc. The role of symmetry in understanding the laws of the universe; identification of some of the important symmetries in particle physics. Confinement and asymptotic freedom Connection between HEP and cosmology Big Bang phenomenology Big Bang and stellar nucleosynthesis The importance of the CMB to our understanding of the Universe

6. P301 Exam I Review Philosophy: The most important things in this course are developing an understanding and appreciation for how we know what we know about things that are very small or moving very fast. You should develop some understanding of what very small and very fast mean, but you needn’t be overly concerned with memorizing specific constants or formulae. You should be able to understand the key experimental results, their significance in shaping our current view in the world, and how their data are collected and interpreted. You should also understand and be able to use the various formulae we have derived and or presented in this class to quantify the sometimes strange phenomena involved (but recall you’ll have a formula sheet, so memorizing them is not essential).

7. P301 Exam I Review Important experiments: Relativity Michelson-Morley experiment Muon lifetime observations from cosmic rays. Doppler Effect (expanding Universe, binary stars, extra-solar planets, SMOKEY, …). Synchrotron radiation (transformation of angles in relativity). Quantum Mechanics Cathode-ray tube experiments e/m of the electron X-rays: Bremsstrahlung, characteristic Photo-electric effect Franck-Hertz experiment Line spectra of gasses Compton effect Discovery of the positron (antiparticles in general) Rutherford scattering Bragg/Laue scattering Moseley’s law

8. P301 Exam I Review Important ideas: Relativity Speed of light is a universal constant irrespective of (initial) FoR. Lorentz transformation: time dilation/ Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction. Relativistic mass, energy, momentum Transformation of angles Doppler Effect Space-time diagrams The invariance of interval Electricity and magnetism are intimately connected Quantum Mechanics Light is quantized (Blackbody radiation and hf=E, Compton and PE effects) Electric charge is quantized and electrons are much lighter than atoms Anti-particles exist Atoms have internal structure and dynamics (electrons, atomic spectra, X-rays, radioactivity, chemistry, Rutherford’s experiment). We can understand atoms in terms of quantize light and angular momentum (Bohr) We can explain the periodic table (sort of) Moseley

9. P301 Exam I Review Example descriptive questions: Identify and provide BRIEF descriptions of 4 important experimental results that came out of the study of electric currents in vacuum tubes or such tubes back-filled with dilute gas. Provide a sketch showing the essential elements of the apparatus used by Millikan to quantify individual elementary charges. Identify 3 of the crucial postulates Bohr used in constructing his model of the atom. Identify 2 experimental results that shaped Bohr’s construction of the atom. BRIEFLY describe two important results published by Einstein in 1905. Describe, BRIEFLY, the phenomenon known as the Ultra-Violet Catastrophe and how Planck’s quantum hypothesis avoids this failure of classical theory. (these last two are of the right style, but probably deal with subjects we did not cover in enough detail to be worth more than 5 points on the exam, if they would be asked at all).

10. P301 Exam II Review NO CALM QUESTION FOR FRIDAY!!! Exam Mechanics: Covers material from sections 5.2 thru 8.2 (but of course, some material from earlier sections may come in as well). 1 side of 8.5x11” formula sheet is allowed. It is not to be a general note sheet 5-6 questions (54-60 points; 9-10 “parts” worth 6 points each; 5 very straight-forward; 2 or 3 ask you to “stretch”) All have computational answers this time. Tables from the inside front lay-out of the text will be provided. Exam will start at 11:10. Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30 to 3:00 (Forum) Friday 8:45 to 10:00 No office hours Friday afternoon.

11. P301 Exam II Review Important results/topics: Chapter 5 (4 lectures): Bragg’s law (as applied to particles) DeBroglie waves Fourier Analysis/ Wave packets /Group velocity Uncertainty Relations (position-momentum; time-energy) Wave-particle duality and the Copenhagen interpretation. Chapter 6 (5 lectures): Schrodinger Equation (time dependent and time-independent) Properties of wave functions and the application of boundary conditions. (e.g. problem 2 (7-38) on today’s assignment) Expectation values and the physical significance of  (x,t) Square wells (infinite and finite). Confinement energy Harmonic Oscillator Tunneling

12. P301 Exam II Review Important results/topics: Chapter 7 (3 lectures): Schrodinger Equation in spherical polar coordinates and angular/radial separation of variables Principal and Angular momentum quantum numbers Differences between the “Schrodinger” and “Bohr” hydrogen atom. Properties of the radial wave functions for hydrogen Selection rules. Intrinsic spin Chapter 8 (2.5 lecutres): Pauli Exclusion principle Structure of the periodic table and the role played therein by inter-electron interactions (and radial wave function shapes) and Pauli. Angular momentum (magnitude and projection quantum numbers, uncertainty relations, etc.) Addition of Angular momenta