These are my notes for the five year theoretical physics MPyhs degree taught at the University of Edinburgh. I started this course in 2018 and will graduate in 2023.
These notes are compiled based on material delivered in lectures as well as the lecture notes provided, various textbooks, and other sources.
These notes are correct to the best of my knowledge but since they are my personal notes they are likely to contain errors, typos, and mistakes. Please inform me if you find any sort of mistake or if you simply think that there is an improvement that could be made. The notes assume knowledge of the courses from previous years and possibly of other courses run at the same time. That said the notes should be fairly standalone for anyone with an equivalent amount of maths and/or physics education as I had at the time that I took the course.
The original purpose of making these notes was to learn LaTeX. This means that for the first few courses (in particular physics 1A and maths for physics 1) I didn't take proper notes I just wrote down formulae without much explanation. These may still be useful for revision or looking up formulae but only if you are familiar with the content. For later courses these notes became part of how I learned the course, I would watch a lecture and take messy notes that where just enough for me to understand and recall the importamt parts of the lecture. After the lecture I would then write up my notes compiling my own notes, the lecture notes, and any other relevant sources. For this reason the notes becomes more verbose for later courses.
If you have spotted a mistake, have a suggestion or improvement in mind, or think something is badly written/explained please contact me by creating an issue.
Here are all the courses I took. (y) denotes a year long course, (s1) a course that was only in semester 1 and (s2) a course that was only in semester 2.
- Quantum Field Theory (s1) (see also another student's notes here)
- Symmetries of Particles and Fields (SoPF) (s1)
- Particle Physics (s1)
- Gauge Theories in Particle Physics (s2)
As well as these courses I also took the following course with the School of Informatics:
- Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics (ICMP) (s1)
- Relativity, Nuclear, and Particle Physics (RNPP) (s1) - composed of three parts:
- Methods of Mathematical Physics (MoMP) (s1)
- Lagrangian Dynamics (s1)
- Quantum Theory (s1) (see also another student's notes here)
- Symmetries of Quantum Mechanics (SoQM) (s2)
- General Relativity (GR) (s2)
- Statistical Physics (s2)
- Modelling and Visualisation in Physics (MVP) (s2)
- Classical Electrodynamics (CED) (s2) - I took this class over the summer as course only
- Electromagnetism (EM) (y)
- Principles of Quantum Mechanics (PoQM) (y) Note that semester 2 of this course can be taken as a stand alone course called Quantum Physics
- Thermal Physics (y)
- Fourier Analysis and Statistics (s1) - Composed of two parts:
- Numerical Recipes (s1)
- Methods of Theoretical Physics (MoTP) (s2) - Composed of two parts:
- Linear Algebra and Several Variable Calculus (LASVC) (s1)
- Modern Physics (s1)
- Dynamics and Vector Calculus (DVC) (s2) - Composed of two parts:
- Physics of Fields and Matter (s2) - Composed of two parts:
As well as these courses, which are a compulsory part of the theoretical physics degree, I also took two courses with the School of Engineering:
- Analogue Circuits 2 (s1)
- Fluid Mechanics 2 (s1)
In both cases the '2' refers to the fact that this course is delivered in second year, there is no corresponding '1' course but some knowledge of previous engineering courses is assumed, however first year physics courses are sufficient prerequisits to enter these courses.
- Maths for Physics 1 (MFP1) (s1) [Summary, no full notes]
- Physics 1A (s1) [Summary, no full notes]
- Maths for Physics 2 (MFP2) (s2)
- Physics 1B (s2)
As well as these courses, which are a compulsory part of the theoretical physics degree, I also took one course with the School of Chemistry, and one course with the School of Mathematics:
- Chemistry 1A (s1) [No notes]
- Proofs and Problem Solving (s2)
While this material is based mostly on material delivered by lecturers in lecture form and also as lecture notes these notes were created by me. Where appropriate I have cited sources but any unsourced material is either my own or that of the lecturer/textbook mentioned at the start of the document. Any mistakes in these notes are my own, as are any views expressed within.
As the main source of this material I would like to thank the following people who lectured for at least one course, in no particular order:
- Dr Ross Galloway (Physics 1A and Physics of Fields and Matter (Fields))
- Dr Will Hossack (Physics 1A)
- Dr John Loveday (Physics 1A)
- Dr Kristel Torokoff (MFP1, MFP2 and MoMP)
- Dr Joe Zuntz (Physics 1B)
- Prof Victoria Martin (Physics 1B and Particle Physics)
- Prof Alex Murphy (Physics 1B and Modern Physics)
- Prof Phil Clark (LASVC and RNPP (relativity))
- Prof Judy Hardy (Modern Physics and Computer Simulation)
- Prof Tom Bruce (Fluid Mechanics 2)
- Dr David Laurenson (Analogue Circuits 2)
- Prof Rebecca Cheung (Analogue Circuits 2)
- Prof Romeel Dave (DVC (dynamics))
- Prof Roman Zwicky (DVC (vector calculus) and SoQM)
- Dr Stewart Williams (Physics of Fields and Matter (Matter))
- Dr Simon Titmuss (Physics of Fields and Matter (Matter))
- Dr Andreas Hermann (Electromagnetism (s1))
- Dr Jamie Cole (Electromagnetism (s2))
- Prof Jorge Peñarrubia (Statistics and Fourier Analysis (Fourier))
- Prof Andy Lawrence (Statistics and Fourier Analysis (Statistics))
- Dr Bartlomiej Waclaw (Numerical Recipes)
- Dr Britton Smith (Numerical Recipes)
- Prof Luigi Del Debio (PoQM (s1) and QFT (path integrals))
- Prof Arjun Berera (PoQM (s2) aka Quantum Physics)
- Prof Graeme Ackland (Thermal Physics (thermodynamics))
- Prof Alexander Morozov (Thermal Physics (statistical mechanics) and MoTP (VTC)))
- Dr Miguel Martinez-Canales (MoTP (complex analysis))
- Dr Mehdi Bouzid (MoTP (VTC))
- Prof Phil Woods (RNPP (nuclear))
- Dr Matt Needham (RNPP (particle))
- Dr Ingo Loa (ICMP)
- Dr Jenni Smillie (Lagrangian dynamics)
- Dr Roger Horsley (quantum theory)
- Prof John Peacock (GR)
- Prof Martin Evans (statistical physics)
- Prof Davide Marenduzzo (MVP)
- Prof Donal O'Connell (CED and gauge theories (QED and QCD))
- Prof Neil Turok (SoPF)
- Prof Richard Ball (QFT (canonical quantisation) and gauge theories (EW))
- Dr Chris Heunen (categories and quantum informatics)
Some of the books I have used to help write these notes:
- Liebeck, M. A Concise Introduction To Pure Mathematics, fourth edition (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2016)
- Griffiths, D. J. Introduction to Electrodynamics, fourth edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017)
- Press, W. H. et al. Numerical Recipes, third edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007)
- Riley, K. F. et al. Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering, third edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006)
- Halliday, D. Principles of Physics, tenth edition (Wiley, Hoboken, 2014)
- Rex, A. Finn's Thermal Physics, third edition (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2017)
- Feynman, R. P. et al. Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals emended edition (Dover Publications, Mineloa, 2010)
- Kitel, C. Introduction to Solid State Physics, Global edition (Wiley, Hoboken, 2018)
- Tomson, M. Modern Particle Physics, First edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013)
- Allanach, B. Symmetries, Particles, and Fields, (Museum of Wrong, Cambridge, 2022)
- Peskin, M. An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1995)
- Heunen, C. et al. Categories for Quantum Theory, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019)