STRUCTURE OF MATTER

Academic Year 2018/2019 - 3° Year
Teaching Staff: Francesco PRIOLO
Credit Value: 9
Scientific field: FIS/03 - Physics of matter
Taught classes: 49 hours
Exercise: 30 hours
Term / Semester: One-year

Learning Objectives

The course has the aim of describing the most important experiments and models that allowed the birth of modern physics and quantum mechanics.


Course Structure

The course will be taught through lectures in the classroom and will take advantage of several excercises to better comprehend the different subjects.


Detailed Course Content

Electrons & Photons: Millikan experiments - photoelectric effect - Compton effect - blackbody radiation - X-ray diffraction

Atoms: Brownian motion, Rutherford scattering, Bohr atom, Schroedinger equation - De Broglie wavelength - Incertainty principle - tunnel effect - Hydrogen atom - Helium atom - Spin - Complex atoms

Molecules: Bi-atomic molecules - Born Oppenheimer approximation - Raman effect

Quantum statistics: Fermi-Dirac statistics - Bose Einstein statistics - Fermi gas - Bose-Einstein condensation


Textbook Information

[1] J. J. Brehm e W. Mullin, Introduction to the Structure of Matter, John Wiley (1989).

[2] R. Eisberg e R. Resnick, Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids & Nuclei, J. Wiley

[3] G. Herzberg, Atomic spectra and atomic structure, Dover Books on Physics

[4] W. Demtroeder, Atoms, molecules and photons, Springer

[5] C. Kittel e H. Kroemer, Thermal Physics, Freeman & Co.

[6] B. Cagnac, Modern Atomic Physics, J. Wiley

[7] B.H. Brandsen and C.J. Joachain, Physics of atoms and molecules, Longman Scientific & Technical

[8] A.P. French, E.F. Taylor, An Introduction to Quantum Physics, MIT Introductory Physics Series