Course syllabus and reading assignments
 
 
Date Subject Suggested reading material
January 22 Quasiparticles
PN Sec. 1.1; A Ch. 1, 2; AM pp. 345-351
January 24 Transport coefficients
A Ch. 3; AM pp. 244-256; 314-320.
January 29
Scattering mechanisms
A Sec. 4.1, 4.2; AM pp. 320-326.
January 31
Electron-phonon scattering
A Sec. 4.3, 4.4; AM Ch. 26.
February 4
Skin effect
AM p. 277; A Sec. 7.1-7.3; PN Sec. 3.6, 3.7.
February 5
Weak localization
A Sec. 11.3, 11.4; P Sec. 12.4.
February 7
Anderson localization A Sec. 11.6; P Sec. 12.1-12.3.
February 11
Landauer formula
see notes handed out in class
February 12
Mesoscopic fluctuations
A 11.7
February 14
no lecture
 
February 19 Interaction effects A Sec. 13.1, 13.2; PN Sec. 1.2, 1.4, 1.5
February 21
Fermi-Liquid theory  A Sec. 13.3; PN Sec. 1.3
February 26
no lecture
 
February 28
no lecture

March 4
Collective excitations in Fermi Liquids
A Sec. 13.5; PN Sec. 1.7, 1.9
March 6
Screening
PN 2.3, 2.4, 3.1-3.5
March 11
no lecture

March 13
Stoner instability
AM p.682-684
March 18 spring break  
March 20 spring break  
March 25
Magnetic impurities P Ch. 6; H Ch. 1
March 27
Kondo effect: overview see notes handed out in class
March 31
Kondo effect: perturbation theory  H Ch. 2; A Sec. 4.6
April 1
Kondo effect: scaling approach  H Ch. 3; And Sec. 5C, p. 483-488
April 3
Kondo effect: low temperatures  H Ch. 5; A Sec. 13.7
April 8
no lecture
 
April 10
More Kondo physics
H Secs. 1.9, 6.5, 9.3
April 14 Thermodynamics of superconductors T Ch. 1,2; A Ch. 15. 
April 15 Phonon-mediated attraction A Secs. 16.1, 16.2; AM Ch. 26; dG Sec. 4.2
April 17
Cooper pairs
T Sec. 3.1; A Secs. 16.3; dG Sec. 4.1
April 21
BCS theory T Secs. 3.3-3.7; A Secs. 16.4; dG Sec. 5.1
April 22 Applications of BCS theory T Secs. 3.8-3.10; A Secs. 16.5, 16.6; dG Sec. 5.2
April 24 Meissner effect T Sec. 3.11; A Secs. 16.7-16.9; dG Sec. 5.3
April 29
Josephson effect  T Sec. 6.1; A Secs. 22.1-22.3
May 1
Landau-Ginzburg theory  T Ch. 4; A Ch. 17; dG Ch. 6

PN: Theory of Quantum Liquids, P. Nozieres and D. Pines, Perseus Books, 1999.
A: Fundamentals of the theory of metals, A. A. Abrikosov, North-Holland, 1988.
AM: Solid State Physics, N. W. Ashroft and N. D. Mermin, Thomson, 1976.
P: Advanced Solid State Physics, P. Phillips, Westview Press, 2002.
And: Basic Notions of Condensed Matter Physics, P. W. Anderson, Perseus Books, 1997.
T: Introduction to Superconductivity, M. Tinkham, Dover, 2004.
dG: Superconductivity of Metals and Alloys, P. G. de Gennes, Perseus Books, 1999.