Lectures: Monday & Wednesday, 10:00 am -11:20 pm
Where: Room: LG72 Tech Institute -- Canvas

This is a graduate-level course on nonequilibrium statistical physics and phase transitions covering topics ranging from Brownian motion, stochastic dynamics, Langevin theory and Fokker-Planck dynamics. This quarter will cover fluctuations in thermodynamic systems, space-time correlations of fluctuations, origins of dissipation, linear response theory and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The course will also include selected topics on spontaneous symmetry breaking and the theory of second-order phase transitions.

Pre-requisites: undergraduate-level statistical physics and quantum mechanics.

Details:

• Format: Lectures and Discussion
• Course Materials: Lecture Notes and Assigned Reading
• Evaluation: Exercises, problems and course project

1. Stochastic Processes in Physics
   1. Brownian Motion, Random Walk and Diffusion
   2. Einstein and Langevin's Theories of Brownian Motion
   3. Noise and Stochastic Processes in Electrical Circuits
2. Transport Processes
   1. Hydrodynamics, Diffusion, and Fokker-Planck Equations
   2. Entropy and Approach to Equilibrium
   3. Boltzmann's Kinetic Theory of Dilute Gases
3. Linear Response Theory
   1. Weak disturbances from Equilibrium
   2. Kubo's Theory: Causality, Analyticity
   3. Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem
4. Random Systems
   1. Statistical Mechanics of Quenched Disorder
   2. Electrical Transport in "Dirty" Metals
   3. Strong Disorder - Anderson Localization
5. Phase Transitions
   1. Symmetry Breaking Phase Transitions
   2. Fluctuations of the Broken Symmetry Phase
   3. Nonequilibrium 2^nd order phase transitions