Note: This is the 2010–2011 edition of the eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or click here to jump to the newest eCalendar.
Program Requirements
Students in Honours Electrical Engineering may obtain this minor as part of their B.Eng. degree by completing 18 credits of physics courses, as listed below.
Please consult the Department of Physics for an adviser.
Required Courses
9 credits
-
PHYS 253 Thermal Physics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Energy, work, heat; first law. Temperature, entropy; second law. Absolute zero; third law. Equilibrium, equations of state, gases, liquids, solids, magnets; phase transitions.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Grutter, Peter H (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisites: CEGEP physics or PHYS 131, and CEGEP chemistry or CHEM 120.
- Corequisite: MATH 222
- Restriction: Not open to students taking or having taken PHYS 232.
-
PHYS 357 Honours Quantum Physics 1 (3 credits) *
Overview
Physics : Experimental basis for quantum mechanics; wave-packets; uncertainty principle. Hilbert space formalism. Schrodinger equation: eigenvalues and eigenvectors: applications to 1-d problems including the infinite and finite potential wells and the harmonic oscillator. Tunneling. Time independent perturbation theory.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Dasgupta, Keshav (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisites: MATH 223 or equivalent, and one of PHYS 230, PHYS 251, or CIVE 281
- Restriction: Honours students or permission of the instructor
- Restriction: Not open to students taking or having passed PHYS 446
-
PHYS 457 Honours Quantum Physics 2 (3 credits) *
Overview
Physics : Angular momentum and spin operators. Operator methods in quantum mechanics. Coupling of spin and angular momenta. Variational principles and elements of time dependent perturbation theory (the Golden Rule). Solution of the Schrodinger equation in three dimensions. Applications to the hydrogen and helium atoms and to simple problems in atomic and molecular physics.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Gale, Charles (Winter)
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisite: PHYS 357
- Restriction: Honours students or permission of instructor
- Restriction: Not open to students who have taken PHYS 446
* Students who take PHYS 357 and PHYS 457 can omit PHYS 271 from their normal Electrical Engineering program.
Complementary Courses
9 credits from the following:
-
PHYS 362 Statistical Mechanics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Quantum states and ensemble averages. Fermi-Dirac, Bose-Einstein and Boltzmann distribution functions and their applications.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Underwood, Bret (Winter)
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisites: MATH 248 or equivalents, PHYS 253.
- Restriction: Honours students, or permission of the instructor
- Restriction: Not open to students taking or having passed PHYS 333
-
PHYS 514 General Relativity (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Transition from special to general relativity. Non-Euclidian geometry. The basic laws of Physics in co-variant form, Einstein's equations. Gravitational waves; neutron stars; black holes; cosmology.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Maloney, Alexander (Winter)
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students and graduate students, or permission of the instructor.
-
PHYS 551 Quantum Theory (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : General formulation, scattering theory, WKBJ approximation, time-dependent perturbation, theory and applications, angular momentum, relativistic wave equations.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Maloney, Alexander (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students and graduate students, or permission of the instructor
-
PHYS 557 Nuclear Physics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : General nuclear properties, nucleon-nucleon interaction and scattering theory, radioactivity, nuclear models, nuclear reactions.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Jeon, Sang Yong (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students, graduate students, or permission of the instructor
-
PHYS 558 Solid State Physics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Properties of crystals; free electron model, band structure; metals, insulators and semi-conductors; phonons; magnetism; selected additional topics in solid-state (e.g. ferroelectrics, elementary transport theory).
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Sutton, Mark (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students, graduate students, or permission of the instructor
-
PHYS 559 Advanced Statistical Mechanics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Scattering and structure factors. Review of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics; correlation functions (static); mean field theory; critical phenomena; broken symmetry; fluctuations, roughening.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Coish, William (Fall)
- Fall
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students, graduate students, or permission of the instructor
-
PHYS 562 Electromagnetic Theory (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Electrostatics, dielectrics, magnetostatics, timevarying fields, relativity, radiating systems, fields of moving charges.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Frey, Andrew (Winter)
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Prerequisites (Graduate): U1 or U2 Honours Physics or permission of instructor.
- Restriction: U3 Honours students, graduate students, or permission of the instructor
-
PHYS 567 Particle Physics (3 credits)
Overview
Physics : Survey of elementary particles; hadrons, leptons and hadrons' constituents (quarks). Invariance principles and conservation laws. Detectors and accelerators. Phenomenology of strong, electomagnetic and weak interactions.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Dobbs, Matthew Adam (Winter)
- Winter
- 3 hours lectures
- Restriction: U3 Honours students, graduate students, or permission of the instructor