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Non-linear Dynamics, Chaos and Fractals

Flows on the line: Introduction; Fixed points and stability; Population growth; Linear Stability Analysis; Existence and Uniqueness; Impossibility of oscillations; Potentials

Bifurcations: Saddle-node bifurcation; Transcritical bifurcation; Laser threshold; Pitchfork bifurcation; Overdamped bead on a rotating hoop; Imperfect bifurcations and catastrophes; Insect outbreak

Flows on a circle: Examples and Definitions; Uniform Oscillator; Nonuniform Oscillator; Overdamped Pendulum; Fireflies; Superconducting Josephson junctions

Quantum Information Theory

Quantum bits and quantum gates: quantum bits, basic computations with 1-qubit quantum gates, Pauli matrices or I, X, Y, Z-gates, Hadamard matrix gate or H-gate, quantum gates with multiple qubit inputs and outputs, quantum circuits, non cloning theorem.

Quantum measurements: quantum measurements and types, quantum measurements in the orthonormal basis,  Projective  or  von-Neumann  measurements,   POVM   measurements,   quantum   measurements on joint states.

Astrophysical Concepts

Sky coordinates and motions: Earth Rotation – Sky coordinates – seasons – phases of the Moon – the Moon's orbit and eclipses – timekeeping (sidereal vs synodic period).

Planetary motions – Kepler's Laws – Gravity. Light & Energy – Telescopes – Optics – Detectors.

Planets: Formation of Solar System – planet types – planet atmospheres – extrasolar planets.

Stars: Measuring stellar characteristics (temperature, distance, luminosity, mass, size) – HR diagram – stellar structure (equilibrium, nuclear reactions, energy transport) – stellar evolution.

Introduction to Solid State Physics

Bonding in Condensed matter Physics: Forces and energy of interatomic bonding, Primary bonds: Covalent bonds, Ionic bonds, Metallic bonds etc. Secondary bonds: Van der Waals bonds, Hydrogen bonds etc.

Crystal structure: Bravais lattice, primitive vectors, primitive unit cell, conventional unit cell, Wigner-Seitz cell; Symmetry operations and classification of 2- and 3-dimensional Bravais lattices; Common crystal structures; Reciprocal lattice and Brillouin zone; Bragg-Laue formulation of X-ray diffraction by a crystal.

Statistical Mechanics

Preliminary concepts, probability theory, introduction to central limit theorem, random walk problem, quasi-static process,thermal and mechanical interactions, laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic potentials. Statistical description of a system of particles,microstates, concept of ensembles, basic postulates, phase space, Liouville's theorem, microcanonical, canonical and grand canonical ensembles. Partition functions. Chemical potential,free energy and connection with thermodynamic variables. Equivalence of ensembles. Ideal gas,Gibbs paradox, M-B gas velocity distribution.

Probability, Statistics, and Numerical Methods

Probability Theory: Elementary concepts on probability – axiomatic definition of probability – conditional probability – Bayes’ theorem – random variables – standard discrete and continuous distributions – moments of random variables – moment generating functions – multivariate random variables – joint distributions of random variables – conditional and marginal distributions – conditional expectation – distributions of functions of random variables – t and χ2 distributions – Schwartz and Chebyshev inequalities – weak law of large numbers for finite variance case – central limit theorem for

Instrumentation and Measurement

Introduction to measurement and instrumentation, Static characteristics of instruments; Types of Errors, Statistical Error Analysis, Propagation of Errors; Dynamic Characteristics of Instrumentation Systems, Sensor Reliability; Basic analog measuring instruments (PMMC, electrodynamometer, rectifier) and its use as electronic voltmeter and ammeter. Wattmeter and Energy meters; High Current/Voltage Measurement – C. T., P. T., C. V. T; Null-Based Measurement - D.C. and A.C.

Quantum Mechanics

Mathematical Introduction: Linear vector spaces, inner products, linear operators, eigenvalue problem, generalization to infinite dimensions.

Towards quantum mechanics: relevant experiments, wave particle duality, uncertainty principle, postulates of quantum mechanics, Schrodinger equation, probability current and conservation.

Simple one-dimensional potential problems: Free particle, particle in a box; scattering in step-potentials, transmission and reflection coefficients.

Classical Mechanics

Brief survey of the Newtonian mechanics of a particle and systems of particles; Constraints , generalised coordinates, D'Alembert's principle and Lagrange's equation, velocity dependent potential and dissipation function.

Variational principles and Lagrange's equations, Lagrange multipliers,conservation theorems and symmetry properties.

Central force motion, Kepler's laws,orbital dynamics, stability of circular orbits, precession of equinoxes and of satellite orbits.

Rigid body motion, Euler angles, inertia tensor and moment of inertia.