MAS413 Analytical Dynamics and Classical Field Theory
Note: This is an old module occurrence.
You may wish to visit the module list for information on current teaching.
|Both semesters, 2017/18||20 Credits|
|Lecturer:||Prof Carsten van de Bruck||Timetable||Reading List|
Newton formulated his famous laws of mechanics in the late 17th century. Only later it became obvious through the work of mathematicians like Lagrange, Hamilton and Jacobi that underlying Newton's work are wonderful mathematical structures. In the first semester, the work of Lagrange, Hamilton and Jacobi will be discussed and how it has later affected the formulation of field theory. We will also discuss Noether's theorem, which relates symmetries of a system to the conservation law of certain quantities (such as energy and momentum). In the second semester, Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, will be introduced. The physical principles of General Relativity and mathematical concepts from differential geometry presented. Some consequences of this theory, such as black holes and the expanding universe, will be discussed.
Prerequisites: MAS112 (Vectors and Mechanics); MAS314 (Introduction to Relativity)
No other modules have this module as a prerequisite.
- Formulations of Lagrange and Hamilton;
- Calculus of variations and canonical transformations;
- Interpretation of relativistic systems in the formalisms of Lagrange and Hamilton;
- Noether's theorem;
- Physical Principles of General Relativity;
- Mathematical concepts from Differential Geometry;
- The Schwarzschild Spacetime;
- The Robertson-Walker-Friedmann Spacetime
- to introduce students to the formulations of mechanics by Lagrange and Hamilton;
- to show how mechanical problems can be formulated in much simpler ways;
- introduce new mathematical methods: calculus of variations and canonical transformations;
- show how relativistic systems can be described in the formalisms of Lagrange and Hamilton;
- introduce the concept of a field and how the ideas of Lagrange and Hamilton can be extended to describe fields such as the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field;
- show how Noether's theorem relates the conservation of quantities like energy and momentum to symmetries in Nature;
- to introduce students to the theory of General Relavity;
- to show how methods and concepts of differential geometry are used in General Relativity;
- to show some consequences of Einstein's theory (black holes and the expanding universe).
40 lectures, no tutorials
One formal 3 hour written examination.
|C||Goldstein, Poole, Safko||Classical Mechanics||531 (G)||Blackwells||Amazon|
|C||Joel Franklin||Advanced Mechanics and General Relativity|
|C||Morin||Introduction to Classical Mechanics|
|C||Sean Carroll||Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity|
(A = essential, B = recommended, C = background.)
Most books on reading lists should also be available from the Blackwells shop at Jessop West.
Timetable (semester 1)
|Mon||11:00 - 11:50||lecture||Hicks E39|
|Mon||12:00 - 12:50||lecture||Hicks E39|