Methods of Theoretical Physics I ("Math Methods I") (PHZ 5115)

Course Announcement:

Mathematical Methods of Physics I is taken mostly by first-year graduate students in physics and physical chemistry; it is also open to undergraduates. One of the main goals is to cover some of the mathematical tools used in other first-year graduate physics courses, including abstract vector spaces, vector calculus, tensor analysis, ordinary and partial differential equations, families of orthogonal polynomials, Green's-function techniques, and contour integration, although the pace of other courses means that not all of these can be seen in Math Methods before being used in E&M I or Quantum I. The class meets Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:45 to 11:35 in ISA (the new Physics building), room 2023.

Although we will not be following a text closely, or at least not from beginning to end, some of the homework will be assigned out of Riley, Hobson, and Bence, Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering , 3rd. edition, Cambridge, 2006, ISBN 9780521679718. Student reviewers say that this book fills in more of the details than similar volumes by Boas or Arfken and give it a higher rating at Amazon.com. You may also wish to pick up the student solutions manual to all the odd-numbered exercises (ISBN 978-0521679732).

As supplements, I recommend an old book by Mathews and Walker, Mathematical Methods of Physics (2nd ed.), Pearson, 1970 (ISBN 0805370021) as well as another book published by Cambridge but made available freely on the Web by its authors, Stone and Goldfarb, Mathematics for Physics.

Course materials