Syllabus

Textbooks

Available in the UofT Bookstore

  • The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene (required)
  • Demon Haunted World, by Carl Sagan (expected)

Grading

Fall Semester Topics

  1. Distance and time scales; powers of ten. Atomic structure: nuclei and electrons. Subatomic structure: SLAC and the discovery of nuclear constituents (quarks and gluons). Why the colour force is needed to hold nuclei together. Colourless mesons and baryons.
  2. The Standard Model of Particle Physics. How to tell which subatomic particle is which: the role of mass and spin. Quarks and leptons. Bosons (force-carriers) and fermions (matter). Electromagnetic, weak nuclear, strong nuclear, and gravitational forces. The Higgs boson and the origin of mass. Antiparticles. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
  3. From Newton to Einstein. Newton’s laws of universal gravitation and of how objects move. Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion. How astronomers detect extrasolar planets. Einstein’s Special Relativity. Constancy of the speed of light in all frames of reference. Time Dilation and the Twin Paradox. The speed of light as a limiting speed for massive objects.
  4. Maxwell, Einstein, and the speed of light. Maxwell’s unification of Electricity with Magnetism. The electromagnetic spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays. Photons and the relationship between energy and frequency. Einstein’s General Relativity. Spacetime as geometry. The Equivalence Principle: gravity vs. acceleration. How GPS works.
  5. Black Holes. How astrophysical black holes form when really large stars run out of gas. How astronomers ‘see’ black holes with telescopes by looking at radiation from orbiting material. Horizons and Singularities. The Event Horizon: the place of no return for infalling objects. The Singularity at the centre of a black hole, and its physical meaning.
  6. Hawking Radiation. Stephen Hawking’s insight about quantum weirdness as applied to black holes. Virtual particle-antiparticle pairs and the event horizon. Black hole thermodynamics. Black hole entropy and the Black Hole Information Paradox. Why Einstein’s theory of gravity breaks down at the singularity.
  7. Quantum Weirdness. Blackbody Radiation and the Ultraviolet Catastrophe. Photons as quantized (indivisible) lumps of energy. Photoelectric Effect and Einstein’s Nobel-winning explanation for it. Particle-like nature of quanta.
  8. [Fall Oral Presentations by students on a variety of topics.]
  9. The Wavelike Nature of Quanta. De Broglie’s bold formula for the wavelength of a quantum. Davisson-Germer experiment. Young’s two-slit experiment. Atomic and molecular spectra. Wavefunctions and probability. The idea of a quantum field.
  10. [Fall Test (first hour)]. Clash of the 20th Century Titans. Running of gauge couplings: how electromagnetism gets stronger at higher energy while the strong nuclear force gets weaker. Incompatibility between QM and GR. Why gravity breaks down at high energy: quantum scattering probabilities grow with energy, and become nonsensical (>100%!) at or above the Planck scale.
  11. Unification and String Theory. Open and closed strings, and their smooth interactions. Particle theory as the low-energy limit of string theory. How string theory automatically includes spin one gauge bosons alongside spin two gravitons.
  12. Superstrings and Superstring Duality, Part 1. Extra dimensions of space. Kaluza-Klein modes, string winding modes, and T-duality.

Winter/Spring Semester Topics

  1. Superstring Duality, Part 2. D-branes. The five superstring theories and M theory.
  2. Supersymmetry, Gauge Symmetry, and Symmetry Breaking. The concept of supersymmetry in the context of string theory. How supersymmetry integrates force messengers and matter into one framework. Gauge symmetry. Coulomb, Higgs and confined phases. Symmetry breaking, and applications to the origins of our Universe.
  3. Cosmology: a brief history of our universe. Hubble’s Law. Epochs: Planck scale, inflation, baryogenesis, electroweak symmetry breaking, colour confinement, nucleosynthesis, matter domination, photon transparency, star formation.
  4. Cosmology, origins, and string theory. Energy budget of universe and how it is measured. Experiments: COBE, WMAP,  Type Ia SNe, LSS, gravitational lensing. Theories about the origin of our universe. Inflation and competitors.
  5. Experimental testability and string theory. Debunking of popular myths (even among PhD physicists!) about testability of string theory – and even other beyond-the-Standard-Model particle theories.
  6. Scientific bullsh!t and how to smell it. Bob Park’s Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science.
  7. Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit. The worrying growth of pseudoscience and how you can immunize yourself against it. Common examples of physics BS – like PowerBalance bracelets – and why they are such complete and utter rubbish.
  8. [Spring Oral presentations by students on a variety of topics.]
  9. Scientific Scandals – and Invented Scientific Scandals. e.g.: the Jan Hendrik Schoen affair, Andrew Wakefield and the invented vaccine-autism scare, the  ClimateGate story, and a few other juicy examples.
  10. [Spring Test (first hour)] Bad physics in the movies
  11. Nuclear power.  How does nuclear power work? How dangerous is nuclear waste? What happened in the Fukushima disaster? Different types of nuclear reactor designs (e.g. CANDU).
  12. Fossil fuels, green energy, and ecological sustainability.  Sustainable sources of energy such as wind and solar. How do they work? What mix of types of power stations produces Ontario’s energy? Energy policy. Global warming. Ecological sustainability.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is fundamental to learning and scholarship at the University of Toronto. Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in this academic community ensures that the U of T degree that you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement, and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.

Familiarize yourself with the University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters (http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm). It is the rule book for academic behaviour at the U of T, and you are expected to know the rules. Potential offences include, but are not limited to:

In papers and assignments:

  • Using someone else’s ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.
  • Copying material word-for-word from a source (including lecture and study group notes) and not placing the words within quotation marks.
  • Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor.
  • Making up sources or facts.
  • Including references to sources that you did not use.
  • Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment including
    • working in groups on assignments that are supposed to be individual work,
    • having someone rewrite or add material to your work while “editing”.
  • Lending your work to a classmate who submits it as his/her own without your permission.

On tests and exams:

  • Using or possessing any unauthorized aid, including a cell phone.
  • Looking at someone else’s answers
  • Letting someone else look at your answers.
  • Misrepresenting your identity.
  • Submitting an altered test for re-grading.

Misrepresentation:

  • Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including doctor’s notes.
  • Falsifying institutional documents or grades.

To remind you of these expectations, and help you avoid accidental offences, I will ask you to include a signed Academic Integrity Checklist with every assignment. If you do not include the statement, your work will not be graded.

The University of Toronto treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously. All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following the procedures outlined in the Code. The consequences for academic misconduct can be severe, including a failure in the course and a notation on your transcript. If you have any questions about what is or is not permitted in this course, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you have questions about appropriate research and citation methods, seek out additional information from me, or from other available campus resources like the U of T Writing Website.  If you are experiencing personal challenges that are having an impact on your academic work, please speak to me or seek the advice of your college registrar.

Turnitin

Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.

If you do not wish to use Turnitin, you will need to provide alternative documentation to prove that your work is your own. I require two drafts of each essay in earlier stages of development as well as the final product.