PH5623: Many-Body Physics: Techniques and Applications

← All MSc Courses

Course Information

L-T-P-C3-0-0-3
Prerequisites PH5006, PH5007

Syllabus

Module 1: Second quantization

Lecture hours: 8 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Fock space and occupation number basis, Many-body operators, Applications to free fermions, the tight-binding model and spin chains .

Module 2: Path integrals

Lecture hours: 6 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, Connection to statistical mechanics, Functional path integrals for spins, bosons and fermions .

Module 3: Perturbation theory

Lecture hours: 10 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Green's functions at zero and finite temperature, Perturbation theory: example of phi-4 theory, Perturbation theory for the interacting electron gas .

Module 4: Collective excitations

Lecture hours: 12 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Mean field theory and symmetry breaking, Applications to the interacting electron gas and Bose gas, Superfluidity, Superconductivity .

Module 5: Response functions

Lecture hours: 6 · Tutorial hours: 0 · Lab hours: 0

Linear response theory, Kubo formulae, Structure of correlation functions, Applications to permittivity and conductivity .

Study Materials

Textbooks

  1. Condensed Matter Field Theory, Alexander Altland and Ben Simons, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-1107675650
  2. Introduction to Many-Body Physics, Piers Coleman, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-0521864886

References

  1. Many-Body Quantum Theory in Condensed Matter Physics, Henrik Bruus and Karsten Flensberg, OUP Oxford, ISBN: 978-0198566335
  2. Many Particle Physics, Gerald D. Mahan, Springer, ISBN: 978-8181289414
  3. Quantum Many-Particle Systems, J. W. Negele and H. Orland, CRC Press, ISBN: 978-0738200521