DAMP Physics, IITB

  "Ask Me Anything!" with Prof. Anshuman Kumar Professor Anshuman Kumar is an alumnus of IIT Bombay. He graduated with a B.Tech-M.Tech Dual Degree in Engineering Physics from IIT Bombay in 2010. He then completed his PhD in Nanophotonics at MIT in Feb 2016. His research interests lie in the intersection of quantum optics and condensed matter for low dimensional systems, in the experimental and theoretical aspects of photonics in 2D materials and topological insulators.   More can be found about him on his group webpage http://www.loqm.tech/ 1. Tell us something about your time in IITB as an undergrad. Are there any fond memories you will never forget? How does it feel being a professor in the same college? Do you find any difference from your undergrad years?  Things have changed a lot from the time I was here as an undergrad. Let me first give you an idea of the physical changes. There was no LHC, and all our physics classes from second year onwards were held in the depa...

Course Instructor :  Pradeep Sarin Course Name:  Electronics Lab 1 Course Type:  Core(Lab) Credits:  3 Pre-requisites:  None Course Content:  Introduction to lab equipment like oscilloscopes and wave generators Transistor and Op-amp behaviours in circuits Books:  Reading material provided before labs was more than enough. Online-Resources:  Online resources found a google search away, and basic videos were quite helpful. Assignments:  The assignments and pre-lab quizzes together consist for 80 percent of the grade, the remaining is for the final lab. Exams and Grading: pr e lab quizzes based on reading material, In lab Assignments and one exam at the end Pro-tips:  In labs, peer communication is encouraged, so labs aren't extremely formal, TA's are very helpful in understanding any concepts, and most of all reading material given by Sarin Sir is more than helpful for anything in lab. The assignments are made so we discover the problem s...

Course Instructor : Swapneel Mahajan Course Name: Differential Equations 2 Course Type: Core(Theory) Credits: 4 Pre-requisites:  MA108 (Informal) Course Content:  Power series and frobenius methods of solving linear ODEs, Legendre equation and properties of its solutions, Bessel equation and properties of its solutions, fourier series, Heat equation and wave equations in 1 and 2 dimensions ( polar and cartesian coordinates for the latter), laplace equation, eigenvalues and eigen functions of the laplacian operator on the unit sphere. Books:  Elementary Differential Equations - Rainville and Bedient, and the lecture notes were also a book by themselves Lectures: No compulsory attendance. Lectures were rather lackluster in the first half (except for the puzzle Prof. Swapneel would present at the end of every class). Even though it might seem incredibly boring, it's best to slog through the first half of the course, as the course content gets a lot more interesting in the...

Course Instructor : Prof. Spatarshi Prosonno Ghosh, Prof. Surajit Bhattacharyya Course Name: Economics Course Type: Core(Theory) Credits: 6 Pre-requisites:  None, this is an introductory level course in Economics Course Content:  Microeconomics- Ten Principles of Economics, Market Supply and Demand, Elasticity, Government Policies (Taxes, Price Ceilings and Floors), Market Equilibrium, Costs of Production, Firms in Competitive Markets, Monopoly, Oligopoly, Efficiency of Markets, Theory of Consumer Choice Macroeconomics- National Economies, Inflation, Unemployment, The Great Depression, Keynesian Macroeconomics, Aggregate Demand and Supply, National Income, GDP, GNP, National Income Accounting Equation, The Multiplier Model, Multipliers (Investment, G, Tax), Money and Banking, Money Multiplier, Consumption Function, Absolute Income Hypothesis (AIH), Life Cycle Hypothesis (LCH) Books:  Principles of Microeconomics, by N. Gregory Mankiw Principles of Macroeconomics, by N. Gr...

Course Instructor : Prof. U K Anandavardhanan Course Name: Complex Analysis MA 205 Course Type: Core(Theory) Credits: 4 Pre-requisites:  MA 105 (Calculus) being an informal pre-requisite. Course Content:  Complex numbers and why are they interesting, limits, continuity and differentiability, Cauchy-Riemann equations, harmonic functions, power series, exponential function, logarithmic function, integration, Cauchy's theorem, Cauchy Integral Formula, holomorphic and analytic functions, Cauchy's estimate, Liouville's theorem, entire functions, Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, Morera's theorem, isolated roots theorem, Identity theorem, singularities, Laurent series, Cauchy Residue Theorem, Riemann Removal Singularities Theorem, real integrals and contour integration, Maximum Modulus Theorem. Conformal mappings were a part of the prescribed syllabus, but could NOT be covered due to time constraints. Books:  Didn't refer to any book in particular, wasn't required to b...

Course Instructor : Pradeep Sarin Course Name: Elec Lab 2 Course Type: Lab Credits: 3 Pre-requisites:  EE-112 Course Content:  Practical applications of Op-Amps, Triggers, Filters and Amplifiers Lock-in amplifier, power transfer and reflectometry. Books:  Material provided by professor is sufficient. Lectures: Assignments:  Assignments are fairly simple at the beginning and fairly doable in 15-20 minutes, but towards the end the assignments get much more demanding and need 2-3 read throughs of the material before a good attempt can be made. Overall the assignments and material is interesting and challenging. Grading policy is lenient if the batch is sincere. The lab difficulty goes from trivial to complex from the first session to the last but help is always available. Exams and Grading: One endsem with 30-40% weightage maximum. A small ammount (~10%) of weightage for assignments. Pro-tips: Extremely interesting if even a slight inclination towards Electrical courses...

Course Instructor : Prof Vikram Rentala Course Name: Special Theory of Relativity Course Type: Core Credits:  3 Pre-requisites : Formal - No prerequisites Informal - Linear Algebra, Calculus Course Content:   Basic Postulates of Special Relativity Time and length interval between events Simultaneity of events Doppler Shift Space-time diagrams Generalized Newton's Laws and Energy-momentum conservation Tensors and Maxwell's equations Books: Introduction to Special Relativity by Robert Resnick Lectures: Attendance Policy: None Lectures: Blackboard Prof Rentala covered the entire portion on time and in complete details and was helpful for solving doubts too. But last topic of 'Tensors and Maxwell's equations' were not covered properly and were left for 'Self Study'. 50% of the endsem exam was based on this last topic and hence was difficult Assignments: No Assignments, No compulsary Tutorial submission but no solution to tutorial was provided. Difficulty level...

Course Instructor : Sadhana Dash Course Name: Probability Course Type: Core Credits: 6 Pre-requisites : None Course Content:   Basics of probability, random variables,different types of distributions(discrete-binomial, Poisson etc, Continuous -exponential, normal etc), moment generating functions, parameter testing, hypothesis Testing, goodness of fit tests Books: Introduction to probability and statistics by Sheldon M Ross Lectures: Lectures were on the blackboard, the quality wasn't all that good. Assignments: No graded assignments Exams and Grading: Grading based on : 2 quizzes(10 ,15) Midsem -30 Endsem-45 Exams were were of a moderate level of difficulty Respondent:   Aryan  

Instructor Name: Mithun Mitra Course Name:  Physics of Biological Systems (PH 549) Course Type:  Theory (Honors/Electives) Credits:  6 Pre-requisites:  No formal prerequisites but knowledge of basic statistical physics helps Course Content:  1. Diffusion and drift 2. Fluid flow, Navier Stokes Equation 3. Equilibrium Stat Mech and applications, Chemical potential, MWC model of Haemoglobin 4. Polymer models, FJC and FRC, Force-extension curves, Protein folding, Chromatin packing 5. Crowding in biological systems 6. Non-equilibrium systems, Rate equations and reaction kinetics, Cytoskeletal polymerization 7. Molecular motors 8. Pattern formation in biology, Schnakenberg kinetics Books: Physical biology of the cell - Rob Phillips Biological physics: Energy, Information and life - Phil Nelson Lectures: There was no attendance policy. The professor used both slides and blackboard. Since all the exams were open book, it really helps to attend all the lectures. As...

Instructor Name:  Vikram Singh Sirola Course Name:  History and Philosophy of Science (HS 433) Course Type: Theory  Credits: 6 Pre-requisites: None Course Content:  I. Nature of Science a) Distinction between science, non-science, and pseudoscience b) epistemological and metaphysical basis II. Scientific Progress a) Relationship between the natural and social sciences b) Karl Popper (critical rationalism) c) Thomas Kuhn (alternative notion of normal science) d) Imre Lakatos (methodology of research programmes) e) Paul Feyerabend (methodological libertarianism) III. Scientific Realism a) Truth Realism b) Entity Realism c) Non-Realism and Anti-realism debate d) Instrumentalism e) Structure Realism IV. Evolutionary Epistemology a) Karl Popper’s evolutionary epistemology V. Law of Nature and Scientific explanation a) Causality and indeterminism in physical theory b) Laws and universal truths c) Kind of facts Books: 1: John Losee, A historical Introducti...

HS474: Postmodernism and Philosophy (Autumn 2019-20) Course Name: Postmodernism and Philosophy Course Code: HS474 Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Pravesh G. Jung Course Type: Institute Elective (Theory) Prerequisite: None Course Content: The first half of the semester involved laying the foundation of postmodernism and the philosophical ideas, (like modernism) leading up to it. We did readings of modern thinkers like Plato, Locke, Bacon, Hume, Descartes and Kant. This was followed up with the postmodern ideas of thinkers like Nietzsche, Foucault and Derrida in the second half of the semester.  Useful Books: There are no recommended textbooks for this course. Class notes are absolutely a life saver and the only place to read from for the exams. Lectures: The attendance in the lectures is compulsary, and it is quite necessary since there are no textbooks or resources to study the course contents directly from. Prof Jung connects ideas of different thinker...

MM474: Science and Technology of Thin Films (2019-20) Course Name: Science and Technology of Thin Films Course Code: MM474 Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Rajiv O Dusane Course Type: Theory Prerequisite: No formal prerequisites but knowledge of Structure of Materials (MM201) is recommended.   Course Content: Vacuum components and systems. Thin film deposition techniques: Physical and chemical vapour deposition techniques including molecular beam epitaxy, laser ablation and hot wire and microwave CVD techniques.  Film contamination, cosine law of deposition, conformal coverage and line of sight deposition.  Growth of thin films: Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations of deposition of thin films. Characterization of thin films: Different methods of thickness measurements, electrical, optical, chemical and structural property determination.   Books: Materials science of thin films, M. ohring, Academic press. Lectures: Mostly slides are u...