1st Workshop on Quantum Mechanics: SchrÃļdinger's Wit
This summer, Community of Physics brings you the very first workshop on Quantum Mechanics, the â1st Workshop on Quantum Mechanics: SchrÃļdinger's Witâ. In this workshop, we will discuss basic concepts and applications of quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental branch of physics and is a crucial step toward understanding nature at an atomic scale. Despite that, quantum mechanics has been a source of amusement and amazement both to the novice and the experienced physicist. It has also been a source of confusion and misconceptions; the bulk of pop-science literature testifies in support of many engineers, chemists, and philosophers.
Since it is almost impossible to grasp the essence of quantum mechanics without understanding the shortcomings of classical physics, the Community of Physics has undertaken the risk to offer the laymen a flavor of that Tao which bridges the gap between classical physics and quantum mechanics. This summer, Community of Physics brings you the â1st Workshop on Quantum Mechanicsâ.
In this upcoming workshop, we will shortly review the classical theories prior to exploring the Schrodinger equation, potential well, and tunneling effects. Later, weâll be learning the necessary algebra, the current language of quantum mechanics. We'll also see how quantum mechanics works by applying it to the simplest atom and deriving the quantum numbers. Weâll conclude the workshop with further instructions for the participants to study quantum mechanics. A detailed topic list is uploaded to the event page.
Any undergraduate student can apply to participate in the workshop. However, a strong statement of purpose (SOP) is expected in the application.
The registration fee for the workshop is decided to an amount of BDT 1200.* It enables us to provide the participants a seamless experience by means of imparting lunches, snacks, souvenirs, etc. on each day of the workshop.
* The selection process is need-blind. The applicant may request for a partial or full waiver (scholarship) upon selection. Community of Physics will pay the fee (or a portion of it) on behalf of the selected applicant if the request for their scholarship is accepted.
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It is not an exaggeration to begin with that Albert Einstein has been the âposter boyâ of physics for nearly a century. His simple \(E=mc^2\) is regarded the physics equation in mainstream media. Fair enough, because it may not be wise to write the tensorial equation of general relativity to impress the mass people. However, Einstein became famous for the first time with his four papers in 1905. We will go over the outlines of those papers in this article.
After his graduation in physics, he had some difficulty finding a job. He tutored private lessons before he got a job in the federal patent office in Bern. It was 1902. He had plenty of time without any distraction in his office. He spent that time to think about the unsolved physics problems (he later recommended young people to do similar menial jobs to think critically and develop original ideas). He published some research articles on thermodynamics. In 1905, he published four papers in âAnnalen der Physikâ, a scientific journal. These papers are usually called annus mirabilis papers. Annus mirabilis is Latin for âauspicious yearâ. It was truly an extraordinary year for him as well as for the physics world.
His first work was on the photoelectric effect. If light impinges on a metal, the metal can release electrons depending on the light energy. This is called the photoelectric effect. By that time, it was established beyond doubt that light is an electromagnetic wave. But its wave property failed to describe the photoelectric effect. Einstein attempted this problem. He analyzed the radiation energy of light from a statistical point of view. He calculated the entropy for radiation energy and found change in entropy for changing volume (from volume \(V\)Â to volume \(V_0\) ) of radiation of blackbody was,
\[S-S_{0}=\frac{kU}{h\nu}\log\frac{V}{V_{0}}\]
Here \(k,U,h, \nu\)  are Boltzmann's constant, total energy of the blackbody, Planck's constant and frequency of radiation of consideration. In parallel, the expression of the change in entropy for changing volume of monoatomic gas was,
\[S-S_{0}=nk\log\frac{V}{V_{0}}\]
\(n\)Â is the number of monoatomic gas in the system. Einstein noticed that both equations have similar expressions, so radiation must be like monoatomic gas in the nature. And the âatomâ of radiation will be âquantaâ. Basically radiation energy is carried by âquantaâ, small packets of energy. This answered phenomena like the photoelectric effect.
He concluded that radiation is discrete like atoms, and each radiation particle or, quanta carries $h\nu$ energy and hence, total energy will be the sum of energies of all particles at a certain frequency, \(U=nh\nu\). Prior to that, Max Planck had quantized radiation sources i.e. rad As George Gamow remarked once, Planck thought radiation like butter! There is no distinct shape or size of butter, you can take as much you want. But it can be purchased and sold in the groceries only in fixed quantities. Buyer (absorber) and dealer (emitter) of radiation exchanged butter (=radiation energy) only in packages of \(h\nu\). But Einstein essentially quantized radiation itself!
His theory of quanta was bold against the established wave property of light. But he favored his statistical mechanical analysis. He prioritized on a theoretical basis, and showed this explanation can sufficiently explain the photoelectric effect. This paper paved the path to wave-particle duality which is one of the core ideas of quantum mechanics.
The second article produced a theory of Brownian motion. Brownian motion is the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid, resulting from the collision with fluid molecules. At that time, atoms were merely a helpful concept, but not proved to exist in reality. He constructed a theory of Brownian motion from the kinetic theory of gases that provided an indirect method to confirm the existence of atoms and molecules. It also gave an experimental path to determine Boltzmann's constant and thus Avogadro's number, like Planck's blackbody radiation did earlier.
The last two articles of 1905 introduced special relativity. By that time, Maxwell's equations were already verified in experiments. Yet it had a conflict with the mechanical approach. The problem came from Faraday's magnet-coil experiment. If we move a magnet near a coil, an electric current is induced in the closed coil. Maxwell's law can explain this, as change in magnetic field can cause electric field. If we moved the coil instead of the magnet, the current would be still the same. The event is symmetric, it only depends on the relative velocity between the magnet and the coil. But in the latter case, the magnetic field is static, unable to produce any electric current according to Maxwell's equations. This asymmetry was inconsistent with the âabsolute restâ idea. Einstein discarded the absolute notion and replaced it with relativity.
He postulated two assertions in 3rd paper to build his path of space and time transformation from one frame to another. First, he defined the inertial reference frame and stated that physics acts the same in all inertial frames which is also known as Galilean relativity. Secondly, he postulated that the speed of light is the same for all observers. It means whether the light source is moving or stationary, the speed of light will appear the same to all observers. It already had experimental ground from the experiments of Michelson-Morley. But the inspiration for this postulate came from Maxwell's theory, rather than experimental evidence.
These two postulates simply yielded the transformation of space and time. (previously derived by Lorentz, but he neither used the postulates, nor interpreted it physically. To Lorentz, it was only a calculational trick.) The transformation is known as Lorentz transformation. For uniform relative velocity of v (along x-axis) between two frames, Lorentz transformation follows,
\( t'=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}(t-\frac{v}{c^{2}}x) \)
\( x'=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}(x-vt) \)
\(yâ=y\)
\(zâ=z\)
Length contraction (one of the consequences of Lorentz transformation) was already shown by FitzGerald. But Einstein's presentation was different from previous works by FitzGerald, Larmor, and Lorentz. Einstein predicted time dilation and relativistic Doppler effect. He also showed that simultaneity is not absolute, but can be broken in any other frame. For example, if I blow two candles exactly at the same time, my friend in a moving rocket (maybe he is in SpaceX!) will see one candle is blown after the other one is off! Later the geometric formulation of spacetime was developed by Minkowski, Einstein's former teacher. The âintuitiveâ Galilean transformation didn't preserve Maxwell's equations under the change of frame, which goes against the first postulate. Therefore, Galilian's was substituted by Lorentz transformation that ensures the same form of Maxwell's equations in all frames.
The last paper explored the relations between energy, velocity and mass. There is always an energy term corresponding to the mass, distinct from any other energy term (i.e. kinetic, potential energy). Einstein wrote \(E=mc^2\) , mass-energy equivalence for the first time. In his words, â...If the theory corresponds to the facts, radiation conveys inertia between the emitting and absorbing bodies.â This equation explains how we get energy from mass in nuclear fusion and fission. These two processes conserve the number of particles. So you can say the effective mass decreases. In addition, there are annihilation events where particle-antiparticle (such as electron and positron) annihilate each other and their masses convert into pure energy in the form of photons. All are governed by \(E=mc^2\), the iconic equation of physics.
The amazing thing about these Einstein's 1905 papers is that he produced original research from simple math and all his topics were not anyhow related to one another. Each of his 1905 theories took time to verify. It will take another blog to write about those experiments. Anyway, his life in the patent office was coming to an end. Soon he received a modest job offer in academia and sailed for a new life in the physics community.
- Md Samiur Rahman Mir
About: The writer is currently doing MSc in Physics at the University of Alberta. Previously, he graduated in Physics at the University of Dhaka. During that time, he got involved with academic activities of CP. Currently he is acting as the Editor-in-Chief of CP.
Writer: David Tong is a professor of Theoretical Physics (University of Cambridge) and a fellow of Trinity College. His research group focuses on Â
âHigh Energy Particle Physicsâ.Â
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The 3rd Workshop on Differential Equation 2019 (WDE3) have effectively come to an end yesterday (October 10th, 2019). The duration of workshop spanned for four days, starting from 6th October to 10th October (with a day off on October 8th, 2019 due to Durgapooja), completing the endeavour for the 11th workshop organized by Community of Physics (CP).
According to the new norm of the organization, from now on CP is going to organize at most two workshops a year, one in a small scale and the other is large. This workshop was a stepping stone toward materialising the plan. The focus groups were undergraduate students from the freshman and sophomore levels, but people who wanted to brush-up their floundering skills in the topic also joined. Students from several places such as University of Dhaka (DU), Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science & Technology University (BSMRSTU), Khulna University (KU) etc. also joined.
On the last day of the workshop, the final examination took place. Students who aced the examination and who performed most consistently were rewarded. Md Mahabur Rahman secured the 1st position in the workshop and Md Juned Miah secured the 2nd. Both of them are from the University of Dhaka.
CP is grateful to the following two followers: Sadman Sakib and Golam Mortuza Hossain for their immense effort as volunteers, who help us run this workshop smoothly. We look forward to the next workshop, which will be bigger and hopefully better in terms of quality, content and learning experience.
Udvash (academic and admission care) was kind enough to provide us with an amazing venue, completely free of cost, as they do every year. A big shoutout to them.Â
 Let us look at some of the memorable glimpses of this workshop:Â
âNewton has shown us that a law is only a necessary relation between the present state of the world and its immediately subsequent state. All the other laws since discovered are nothing else; they are in sum, differential equations.â
                                               â Henri PoincarÊ
1st Workshop on Differential Geometry - 2019 and CP Physics Hustle - 2019
Community of Physics has organised its 10th workshop on June 15, 2019 to June 21, 2019 in Udvash Cantonment Branch (Mirpur 14, Dhaka), this time along with a special competition for High-school level students titled âCP physics Hustleâ.Â
The workshop took 7 days and the hustle took place on the last day. As always, the venue was provided by Udvash. This is the 8th workshop for which Udvash provided the venue. But this time they went a step further, they were generous enough to provide substantial financial contribution to CP Physics Hustle, strengthening the long prevailing relationship between Udvash and the Outreach division of Community of Physics. Their continuous support became one of the crucial factor for the success of this workshop.Â
A special mention is deserved by the volunteers. Here is a list of the followers of who proved their worth while acting as volunteers:Â
Rakibul IslamÂ
Md Abdus Sami Akanda (from Khulna initiative)
Golam Martuza HossainÂ
Partha SarkerÂ
Zubaida Karim Juthy (from Khulna initiative)
Anom Ahmed
Jaber Ibner Taher
Musfik Fahim
In the workshop, the first position was secured by Al Abrar Islam from University of Dhaka, and the second was by Md Alim Al Razy from BRAC University. In the Physics Hustle, Abrar Al Shadid Abir from Chittagong College secured the first place.Â
We would like to thank all the followers and participants from all over the country and endured all the small mistakes that took place in this process. We hope you will be with us in our future endeavors.Â
Finally, here is a glimpse of a small congregation of the members, followers and participants of the Community of Physics family. Â
.................................................................................................................
Maruf Ahmed
Director of Public Affairs
Division of Outreach
Community of Physics
âThe first term is the product of the given sine and radius of the desired arc divided by the cosine of the arc. The succeeding terms are obtained by a process of iteration when the first term is repeatedly multiplied by the square of the sine and divided by the square of the cosine. All the terms are then divided by the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, .... The arc is obtained by adding and subtracting respectively the terms of odd rank and those of even rank. It is laid down that the sine of the arc or that of its complement whichever is the smaller should be taken here as the given sine. Otherwise the terms obtained by this above iteration will not tend to the vanishing magnitude.âÂ
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