1 00:00:00,450 --> 00:00:05,367 Hello everybody and thank you for your interest in our course in quantum physics. 2 00:00:05,368 --> 00:00:09,406 In this first introductory video, I'm going to give you an overview of the 3 00:00:09,406 --> 00:00:12,260 course. I'll tell you about the course logistics, 4 00:00:12,260 --> 00:00:16,748 the grading policy and we also will discuss in more detail the material that's 5 00:00:16,748 --> 00:00:19,225 actually going to be covered in the course. 6 00:00:19,226 --> 00:00:24,502 Well, first of all I would like to introduce again the instructors, that is 7 00:00:24,503 --> 00:00:28,312 Charles Clark and myself, Victor Galistski. 8 00:00:28,313 --> 00:00:34,160 We both are theoretical physicists working on quantum science at the Joint Quantum 9 00:00:34,160 --> 00:00:38,042 Institute, or just JQI, at the University of Maryland. 10 00:00:38,043 --> 00:00:43,852 Jqi is a very exciting place where there is a lot of wonderful science being done 11 00:00:43,852 --> 00:00:47,807 on a daily basis. Both in experimental physics and 12 00:00:47,808 --> 00:00:51,382 theoretical physics. So there are a number of very talented 13 00:00:51,382 --> 00:00:54,477 students working with us. For example, these two guys here. 14 00:00:54,478 --> 00:01:00,130 And this, by the way, is a picture of a new building coming up where JQI will be 15 00:01:00,130 --> 00:01:04,404 located. Both the University of Maryland and JQI 16 00:01:04,404 --> 00:01:09,466 are situated in the Washington D.C. Area in the United States, so this is the 17 00:01:09,466 --> 00:01:14,975 Beltway surrounding Washington D.C. And this is the White House here, and we 18 00:01:14,975 --> 00:01:18,104 are about 5 miles or so from the White House. 19 00:01:18,105 --> 00:01:24,891 So we the JQI are always looking for adults and students to work with us and 20 00:01:24,891 --> 00:01:29,303 the students in Postdoc. So if you're interested and would like to 21 00:01:29,303 --> 00:01:32,865 know more, please visit our website here at jqi.umd.edu. 22 00:01:32,865 --> 00:01:38,801 Well, you can certainly learn more about the JQI and about the science that we do 23 00:01:38,801 --> 00:01:42,662 by going to our website and searching the internet. 24 00:01:42,663 --> 00:01:46,700 We on our side unfortunately know very little about you. 25 00:01:46,700 --> 00:01:54,273 So what we do know is that there are about 25,000 students signed up for our course. 26 00:01:54,273 --> 00:01:57,755 And that's it. So there is nothing else we know about 27 00:01:57,755 --> 00:02:01,737 you, unfortunately. So well, Coursera has your email addresses 28 00:02:01,737 --> 00:02:06,737 and we can use this database to send you course announcements. 29 00:02:06,737 --> 00:02:13,121 But apart from that we don't know anything about your interests, your expectations 30 00:02:13,121 --> 00:02:18,808 for the course, your future plans. And it would be very helpful for us to 31 00:02:18,808 --> 00:02:24,723 have a little bit of information about. So we'd love to know more and so in this 32 00:02:24,723 --> 00:02:31,235 context I would like to emphasize please complete survey that you will find on the 33 00:02:31,235 --> 00:02:36,184 last page on Coursera. It would take maybe 30 seconds or a minute 34 00:02:36,184 --> 00:02:41,516 of your time to do so but it will be very helpful for us to understand your 35 00:02:41,516 --> 00:02:47,622 expectations and also to gauge the level of the material that actually will be 36 00:02:47,622 --> 00:02:50,830 presented. So some of the lectures have already been 37 00:02:50,830 --> 00:02:55,250 recorded, but in the second part of the course the second part of the course 38 00:02:55,250 --> 00:02:59,601 hasn't been recorded yet, and so this information will be really helpful. 39 00:02:59,601 --> 00:03:02,723 So now let me talk about the course logistics. 40 00:03:02,724 --> 00:03:07,726 So as you know, this is an 8 week course, there will be 8 weeks of lectures, 2 41 00:03:07,726 --> 00:03:10,720 lectures per week or well 16 lectures total. 42 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:16,020 I assume you can do the math here. So each lecture will consist on the 43 00:03:16,020 --> 00:03:23,610 average of, of 4 segments, so 10 to 20 minutes each and this will add up to about 44 00:03:23,610 --> 00:03:28,842 2 hours of video content a week. So there will be a one, two in-video 45 00:03:28,842 --> 00:03:32,613 quizzes in each segment. Those are not going to be graded, so this 46 00:03:32,613 --> 00:03:36,220 is sort of to keep you awake to make sure you are still listening. 47 00:03:36,220 --> 00:03:40,679 And there will be one homework every week, which will be graded. 48 00:03:40,679 --> 00:03:45,155 So and there will be 7 home works total and then the last week, we're going to 49 00:03:45,155 --> 00:03:47,810 have a final exam, which also will be graded. 50 00:03:47,810 --> 00:03:50,914 So I will discuss grading policy little later. 51 00:03:50,915 --> 00:03:55,046 So one thing I would like to emphasize here and, and you know, down here in this 52 00:03:55,047 --> 00:03:59,110 course logistics, is that there will be a discussion forums, and you should 53 00:03:59,110 --> 00:04:02,244 definitely take advantage of these discussion forums. 54 00:04:02,244 --> 00:04:06,074 So if you have any questions or comments, or maybe you find a typo in the lecture, 55 00:04:06,074 --> 00:04:09,180 you, you want to learn something, or you have some suggestion. 56 00:04:09,180 --> 00:04:14,139 So please use the discussion forums. So first of all, your fellow students may 57 00:04:14,139 --> 00:04:16,640 be able to help you to answer some of your questions. 58 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:22,834 Or actually we'll also will be monitoring the discussion forums keeping an eye on 59 00:04:22,834 --> 00:04:28,291 good questions and good students. And also actually we'll have a dedicated 60 00:04:28,291 --> 00:04:33,048 student on our side sort of monitoring activity there, so Use the discussion 61 00:04:33,048 --> 00:04:36,460 forums, it's very important. So a little more about our lectures. 62 00:04:36,460 --> 00:04:42,540 So just to remind you this is a graduate slash advanced undergraduate level quantum 63 00:04:42,540 --> 00:04:46,290 physics course. Which automatically implies that there 64 00:04:46,290 --> 00:04:50,376 will be a lot of math involved. So, and those remember that both of your 65 00:04:50,376 --> 00:04:54,996 instructors are theoretical physicists, which actually don't know anything else 66 00:04:54,996 --> 00:04:58,155 but math. So be prepared to see quite a lot of math. 67 00:04:58,156 --> 00:05:02,852 But on our side, we also realized that among, among you, among the students who 68 00:05:02,852 --> 00:05:07,402 are registered for our class, so there at different variations in the level of 69 00:05:07,402 --> 00:05:12,056 mathematical preparation. So we tried to have different levels, also 70 00:05:12,056 --> 00:05:15,060 now are lectures. So some, some video, some videos are going 71 00:05:15,060 --> 00:05:18,510 to be pretty simple with no math involved. Some videos are going, actually going to 72 00:05:18,510 --> 00:05:22,473 involve pretty complicated stuff. So and we came up with the sort of ranking 73 00:05:22,473 --> 00:05:25,949 of our videos by there level of mathematical complexity. 74 00:05:25,949 --> 00:05:30,125 So you will see maybe 1 or 2 video segments with 3 stars which imply that 75 00:05:30,125 --> 00:05:34,819 they do involve very complicated math. And those would be sort of optional for 76 00:05:34,819 --> 00:05:39,434 everybody so you don't have to watch them if you're, it's not going to affect your 77 00:05:39,434 --> 00:05:42,862 final grade. So unless you're really interested and you 78 00:05:42,862 --> 00:05:47,686 want to go through the details you can skip them safely, so I'm going to is not 79 00:05:47,686 --> 00:05:51,687 going to affect it very much. But otherwise, you know, I would encourage 80 00:05:51,687 --> 00:05:55,116 you, of course, to listen to all the material that we were put together. 81 00:05:55,116 --> 00:06:02,325 Now there will be quite a few lectures with 2 stars which will involve the 82 00:06:02,325 --> 00:06:07,084 standard sort of, for quantum mechanics advanced math. 83 00:06:07,085 --> 00:06:12,289 So let's say, differential equations, Fourier transforms delta function, so 84 00:06:12,289 --> 00:06:16,689 these, kinds of things are going to appear pretty often in the course. 85 00:06:16,689 --> 00:06:20,654 And in this case for nontechnical students, I assume that there are quite a 86 00:06:20,654 --> 00:06:24,406 few of you who are that don't really want to go through the calculations. 87 00:06:24,406 --> 00:06:28,366 You're just interested in quantum physics, you heard something, you're interested, 88 00:06:28,366 --> 00:06:30,940 you think its fun you want to know a little more about it. 89 00:06:30,940 --> 00:06:34,900 So in this case I would suggest that you definitely should just skip the 3 stars, 90 00:06:34,900 --> 00:06:39,133 and you maybe should listen to the beginning of the lectures with 2 stars. 91 00:06:39,133 --> 00:06:43,526 Which I normally will try to provide a summary of the results in the beginning, 92 00:06:43,526 --> 00:06:48,344 so that even if you don't understand all the calculations, you can still sort of, 93 00:06:48,344 --> 00:06:51,550 get the main idea. So in this case, basically what I'm saying 94 00:06:51,550 --> 00:06:56,014 is that you, you can listen just to part of the lectures with 2 stars, and this 95 00:06:56,014 --> 00:06:59,754 would be fine. Now there will be a lectures with just 1 96 00:06:59,754 --> 00:07:05,067 star, which will imply that there is some math involved but it's not really crucial 97 00:07:05,067 --> 00:07:09,906 to understand the main results. You may watch it and it's not it's not 98 00:07:09,906 --> 00:07:15,308 about math it's about some other thing. So, and finally there will be lectures 99 00:07:15,308 --> 00:07:19,807 with no ranking in some sense. So those just those don't really involve 100 00:07:19,807 --> 00:07:24,567 for heavy math and anybody can listen to that, whether or not you have physics 101 00:07:24,567 --> 00:07:28,654 background or math background. You, you still should be able to 102 00:07:28,654 --> 00:07:31,841 understand. Now let me say a few words about the 103 00:07:31,841 --> 00:07:35,497 materials you're actually going to learn in this class. 104 00:07:35,498 --> 00:07:40,272 So this is the syllabus page for our course on Coursera. 105 00:07:40,272 --> 00:07:44,036 So you, you can take a look at it, it's, it's available already. 106 00:07:44,036 --> 00:07:50,354 So let me mention first of all that we did not even try to cover all the considerable 107 00:07:50,354 --> 00:07:54,509 aspects of quantum physics in this 8 week online course. 108 00:07:54,509 --> 00:07:58,078 I don't think it's possible. So, even when we teach our regular 109 00:07:58,078 --> 00:08:02,302 students here, who already had some exposure to quantum physics so it takes 110 00:08:02,302 --> 00:08:05,506 about a year for us to cover all aspects of quantum physics. 111 00:08:05,506 --> 00:08:08,663 And then there are some advanced courses on top of that. 112 00:08:08,664 --> 00:08:13,565 So it takes some time well, to learn quantum mechanics at the professional 113 00:08:13,565 --> 00:08:16,241 level. But I think we have a very good selection 114 00:08:16,241 --> 00:08:21,735 of topics here nevertheless, so among them I would like to emphasize this Feynman 115 00:08:21,735 --> 00:08:25,440 formulation of quantum theory that I personally like very much. 116 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:30,340 I think it's one of the most elegant theories developed by Feynman in quantum 117 00:08:30,340 --> 00:08:33,517 theory. So and in the fourth week, we're actually 118 00:08:33,517 --> 00:08:38,372 going to get to rather modern results, so so-called quantum localization. 119 00:08:38,372 --> 00:08:43,413 So we're also going to discuss a little bit theory of superconductivity which is 120 00:08:43,413 --> 00:08:47,750 another fascinating phenomenon which relies on quantum science. 121 00:08:47,751 --> 00:08:52,659 So Charles will start his lectures, in the fourth week. 122 00:08:52,659 --> 00:08:57,107 And he's going to talk about the very important problem of hydrogen atoms. 123 00:08:57,108 --> 00:09:01,962 He discuss atomic spectra, and present the solution to the Schrodinger equation in 124 00:09:01,962 --> 00:09:05,551 the Coulomb potentials. It's a very important result. 125 00:09:05,552 --> 00:09:10,017 So, he'll talk about symmetry, conservation laws, and quantum physics. 126 00:09:10,018 --> 00:09:15,358 So later on actually we'll touch upon modern developments, the more modern 127 00:09:15,358 --> 00:09:20,198 developments, in, in quantum science. Such as for instance, the quantum hall 128 00:09:20,198 --> 00:09:24,921 effect, and very modern developments, about topological insulators. 129 00:09:24,921 --> 00:09:30,444 Some of you might have heard about them. So and in the end of the course, we're 130 00:09:30,444 --> 00:09:35,184 going to talk about other interesting phenomena time-dependent quantum 131 00:09:35,184 --> 00:09:40,049 mechanics. Topological berry phase quantum optics and 132 00:09:40,049 --> 00:09:44,766 lasers in the last week. So the last lecture we sort of keep it 133 00:09:44,766 --> 00:09:48,400 open, so we, we don't know yet what's going to happen. 134 00:09:48,401 --> 00:09:53,061 In the last lecture, so it may, it will much depend, on actually your interests, 135 00:09:53,061 --> 00:09:56,060 your response. Let's see if you request something in 136 00:09:56,060 --> 00:09:59,830 discussion forums, so we may decide to cover it in the last lecture. 137 00:09:59,830 --> 00:10:03,208 So we'll see about that. But all in all I think it's a very good 138 00:10:03,208 --> 00:10:07,548 selection of topics and you're going to learn well the basics of quantum mechanics 139 00:10:07,548 --> 00:10:11,398 and also some advanced topics. So the last comment here I'd like to make 140 00:10:11,398 --> 00:10:16,018 is that, you know, when you read a new book on anything, so before you get to the 141 00:10:16,018 --> 00:10:19,582 action, you know, it takes some time to introduce characters. 142 00:10:19,582 --> 00:10:24,046 You know, and well sometimes you know you may find it a little boring. 143 00:10:24,046 --> 00:10:29,138 And likewise you know, before we can get to the action in some sense here in 144 00:10:29,138 --> 00:10:33,191 quantum mechanics. It will take me a well a few lectures to 145 00:10:33,191 --> 00:10:38,245 introduce the basics to remind you of you know, tell you a little more about the 146 00:10:38,245 --> 00:10:42,742 history of quantum mechanics. How it was actually discovered the main 147 00:10:42,742 --> 00:10:47,539 equations that govern quantum behavior and tell you bout mathematical formulas. 148 00:10:47,539 --> 00:10:52,369 So, and that would encourage you to you know, keep with me during these first few 149 00:10:52,369 --> 00:10:56,709 weeks before we get to the interesting stuff which is going to appear a little 150 00:10:56,709 --> 00:10:59,390 later. Finally let me talk about the grading 151 00:10:59,390 --> 00:11:02,682 policy. So I assumed that it might be of interest 152 00:11:02,682 --> 00:11:07,784 to many of you who would like to get a certificate of the accomplishment. 153 00:11:07,784 --> 00:11:12,380 So the grading is going to be based entirely on your home-works. 154 00:11:12,381 --> 00:11:16,750 So it will be 7 home works for each week. In the end of the week, there will be a 155 00:11:16,750 --> 00:11:20,442 homework. And, these 7 home works are going to 156 00:11:20,442 --> 00:11:25,952 contribute 70% to your course grade. And finally, in the last week, there will 157 00:11:25,952 --> 00:11:29,630 be a final exam, which essentially is, a long homework. 158 00:11:29,630 --> 00:11:33,465 We shall cover, all the topics we will have studied by that time. 159 00:11:33,466 --> 00:11:38,677 And, the final exam will constitute 30% of the course grade. 160 00:11:38,678 --> 00:11:43,114 So each assignment will have a soft due date. 161 00:11:43,114 --> 00:11:48,566 Where you will get the full credit for whatever you have done by that time. 162 00:11:48,567 --> 00:11:53,718 And a hard due date after which no submissions will be accepted. 163 00:11:53,718 --> 00:12:00,050 So, and there will some penalty, you know, after the soft due date, by 5% per page. 164 00:12:00,050 --> 00:12:02,280 That is, I think, what's recommended by Coursera. 165 00:12:02,281 --> 00:12:07,621 Now in the end we're going to us two types of certificates either regular or 166 00:12:07,621 --> 00:12:12,682 distinction and the precise cattle for those will be determined later. 167 00:12:12,682 --> 00:12:17,135 So it be, it will be curved based on the performance of all the students. 168 00:12:17,135 --> 00:12:23,433 But I would estimate that regular certificate cut off will be around lets 169 00:12:23,433 --> 00:12:28,913 say 60% of the grade so you will have to provide 60% of correct answers. 170 00:12:28,914 --> 00:12:33,496 And the certificate with distinction will be at about 90%. 171 00:12:33,496 --> 00:12:39,446 So, but otherwise I think it will be pretty democratic sort of grading policy 172 00:12:39,446 --> 00:12:45,566 and most of you who make an effort to complete the home works are, are going to 173 00:12:45,566 --> 00:12:48,235 do very well. Okay, and after all, if you don't want to 174 00:12:48,235 --> 00:12:51,183 do the homework it's fine. If you just want to listen to some 175 00:12:51,183 --> 00:12:54,157 lectures, of course you should feel free to do so. 176 00:12:54,158 --> 00:12:59,022 And we understand of course that you all have busy schedules and other things to 177 00:12:59,022 --> 00:13:03,133 do, so just have fun okay, and I'll see you in the first lecture soon.