Hello everybody and thank you for your interest in our course in quantum physics.
In this first introductory video, I'm going to give you an overview of the
course. I'll tell you about the course logistics,
the grading policy and we also will discuss in more detail the material that's
actually going to be covered in the course.
Well, first of all I would like to introduce again the instructors, that is
Charles Clark and myself, Victor Galistski.
We both are theoretical physicists working on quantum science at the Joint Quantum
Institute, or just JQI, at the University of Maryland.
Jqi is a very exciting place where there is a lot of wonderful science being done
on a daily basis. Both in experimental physics and
theoretical physics. So there are a number of very talented
students working with us. For example, these two guys here.
And this, by the way, is a picture of a new building coming up where JQI will be
located. Both the University of Maryland and JQI
are situated in the Washington D.C. Area in the United States, so this is the
Beltway surrounding Washington D.C. And this is the White House here, and we
are about 5 miles or so from the White House.
So we the JQI are always looking for adults and students to work with us and
the students in Postdoc. So if you're interested and would like to
know more, please visit our website here at jqi.umd.edu.
Well, you can certainly learn more about the JQI and about the science that we do
by going to our website and searching the internet.
We on our side unfortunately know very little about you.
So what we do know is that there are about 25,000 students signed up for our course.
And that's it. So there is nothing else we know about
you, unfortunately. So well, Coursera has your email addresses
and we can use this database to send you course announcements.
But apart from that we don't know anything about your interests, your expectations
for the course, your future plans. And it would be very helpful for us to
have a little bit of information about. So we'd love to know more and so in this
context I would like to emphasize please complete survey that you will find on the
last page on Coursera. It would take maybe 30 seconds or a minute
of your time to do so but it will be very helpful for us to understand your
expectations and also to gauge the level of the material that actually will be
presented. So some of the lectures have already been
recorded, but in the second part of the course the second part of the course
hasn't been recorded yet, and so this information will be really helpful.
So now let me talk about the course logistics.
So as you know, this is an 8 week course, there will be 8 weeks of lectures, 2
lectures per week or well 16 lectures total.
I assume you can do the math here. So each lecture will consist on the
average of, of 4 segments, so 10 to 20 minutes each and this will add up to about
2 hours of video content a week. So there will be a one, two in-video
quizzes in each segment. Those are not going to be graded, so this
is sort of to keep you awake to make sure you are still listening.
And there will be one homework every week, which will be graded.
So and there will be 7 home works total and then the last week, we're going to
have a final exam, which also will be graded.
So I will discuss grading policy little later.
So one thing I would like to emphasize here and, and you know, down here in this
course logistics, is that there will be a discussion forums, and you should
definitely take advantage of these discussion forums.
So if you have any questions or comments, or maybe you find a typo in the lecture,
you, you want to learn something, or you have some suggestion.
So please use the discussion forums. So first of all, your fellow students may
be able to help you to answer some of your questions.
Or actually we'll also will be monitoring the discussion forums keeping an eye on
good questions and good students. And also actually we'll have a dedicated
student on our side sort of monitoring activity there, so Use the discussion
forums, it's very important. So a little more about our lectures.
So just to remind you this is a graduate slash advanced undergraduate level quantum
physics course. Which automatically implies that there
will be a lot of math involved. So, and those remember that both of your
instructors are theoretical physicists, which actually don't know anything else
but math. So be prepared to see quite a lot of math.
But on our side, we also realized that among, among you, among the students who
are registered for our class, so there at different variations in the level of
mathematical preparation. So we tried to have different levels, also
now are lectures. So some, some video, some videos are going
to be pretty simple with no math involved. Some videos are going, actually going to
involve pretty complicated stuff. So and we came up with the sort of ranking
of our videos by there level of mathematical complexity.
So you will see maybe 1 or 2 video segments with 3 stars which imply that
they do involve very complicated math. And those would be sort of optional for
everybody so you don't have to watch them if you're, it's not going to affect your
final grade. So unless you're really interested and you
want to go through the details you can skip them safely, so I'm going to is not
going to affect it very much. But otherwise, you know, I would encourage
you, of course, to listen to all the material that we were put together.
Now there will be quite a few lectures with 2 stars which will involve the
standard sort of, for quantum mechanics advanced math.
So let's say, differential equations, Fourier transforms delta function, so
these, kinds of things are going to appear pretty often in the course.
And in this case for nontechnical students, I assume that there are quite a
few of you who are that don't really want to go through the calculations.
You're just interested in quantum physics, you heard something, you're interested,
you think its fun you want to know a little more about it.
So in this case I would suggest that you definitely should just skip the 3 stars,
and you maybe should listen to the beginning of the lectures with 2 stars.
Which I normally will try to provide a summary of the results in the beginning,
so that even if you don't understand all the calculations, you can still sort of,
get the main idea. So in this case, basically what I'm saying
is that you, you can listen just to part of the lectures with 2 stars, and this
would be fine. Now there will be a lectures with just 1
star, which will imply that there is some math involved but it's not really crucial
to understand the main results. You may watch it and it's not it's not
about math it's about some other thing. So, and finally there will be lectures
with no ranking in some sense. So those just those don't really involve
for heavy math and anybody can listen to that, whether or not you have physics
background or math background. You, you still should be able to
understand. Now let me say a few words about the
materials you're actually going to learn in this class.
So this is the syllabus page for our course on Coursera.
So you, you can take a look at it, it's, it's available already.
So let me mention first of all that we did not even try to cover all the considerable
aspects of quantum physics in this 8 week online course.
I don't think it's possible. So, even when we teach our regular
students here, who already had some exposure to quantum physics so it takes
about a year for us to cover all aspects of quantum physics.
And then there are some advanced courses on top of that.
So it takes some time well, to learn quantum mechanics at the professional
level. But I think we have a very good selection
of topics here nevertheless, so among them I would like to emphasize this Feynman
formulation of quantum theory that I personally like very much.
I think it's one of the most elegant theories developed by Feynman in quantum
theory. So and in the fourth week, we're actually
going to get to rather modern results, so so-called quantum localization.
So we're also going to discuss a little bit theory of superconductivity which is
another fascinating phenomenon which relies on quantum science.
So Charles will start his lectures, in the fourth week.
And he's going to talk about the very important problem of hydrogen atoms.
He discuss atomic spectra, and present the solution to the Schrodinger equation in
the Coulomb potentials. It's a very important result.
So, he'll talk about symmetry, conservation laws, and quantum physics.
So later on actually we'll touch upon modern developments, the more modern
developments, in, in quantum science. Such as for instance, the quantum hall
effect, and very modern developments, about topological insulators.
Some of you might have heard about them. So and in the end of the course, we're
going to talk about other interesting phenomena time-dependent quantum
mechanics. Topological berry phase quantum optics and
lasers in the last week. So the last lecture we sort of keep it
open, so we, we don't know yet what's going to happen.
In the last lecture, so it may, it will much depend, on actually your interests,
your response. Let's see if you request something in
discussion forums, so we may decide to cover it in the last lecture.
So we'll see about that. But all in all I think it's a very good
selection of topics and you're going to learn well the basics of quantum mechanics
and also some advanced topics. So the last comment here I'd like to make
is that, you know, when you read a new book on anything, so before you get to the
action, you know, it takes some time to introduce characters.
You know, and well sometimes you know you may find it a little boring.
And likewise you know, before we can get to the action in some sense here in
quantum mechanics. It will take me a well a few lectures to
introduce the basics to remind you of you know, tell you a little more about the
history of quantum mechanics. How it was actually discovered the main
equations that govern quantum behavior and tell you bout mathematical formulas.
So, and that would encourage you to you know, keep with me during these first few
weeks before we get to the interesting stuff which is going to appear a little
later. Finally let me talk about the grading
policy. So I assumed that it might be of interest
to many of you who would like to get a certificate of the accomplishment.
So the grading is going to be based entirely on your home-works.
So it will be 7 home works for each week. In the end of the week, there will be a
homework. And, these 7 home works are going to
contribute 70% to your course grade. And finally, in the last week, there will
be a final exam, which essentially is, a long homework.
We shall cover, all the topics we will have studied by that time.
And, the final exam will constitute 30% of the course grade.
So each assignment will have a soft due date.
Where you will get the full credit for whatever you have done by that time.
And a hard due date after which no submissions will be accepted.
So, and there will some penalty, you know, after the soft due date, by 5% per page.
That is, I think, what's recommended by Coursera.
Now in the end we're going to us two types of certificates either regular or
distinction and the precise cattle for those will be determined later.
So it be, it will be curved based on the performance of all the students.
But I would estimate that regular certificate cut off will be around lets
say 60% of the grade so you will have to provide 60% of correct answers.
And the certificate with distinction will be at about 90%.
So, but otherwise I think it will be pretty democratic sort of grading policy
and most of you who make an effort to complete the home works are, are going to
do very well. Okay, and after all, if you don't want to
do the homework it's fine. If you just want to listen to some
lectures, of course you should feel free to do so.
And we understand of course that you all have busy schedules and other things to
do, so just have fun okay, and I'll see you in the first lecture soon.