LFU:online

Students will master concepts in advanced statistical physics

Computer simulations have become besides experiments and theory the third colummn of physics. In contrast to experiments, the relevant mechanisms are known already in the set-up, the complexity emerges by the interactions of many elementary building blocks. In contrast to theory, they allow to extract detailed information beyond exactly solvable models or approximate theories.

In the class we will introduce basic algorithms to run efficient simulations in statistical physics. A tentative outline is

Part I

1. Introduction
2. Reminder to Statistical Physics
3. Monte Carlo Methods
4. Statistical Physics of Fluids
5. Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Part II (This lecture)

6. Linear Response
7. Molecular Dynamics at constant Temperature
8. Advanced Methods for Free Energy Calculations
9. Stochastic Dynamics and Brownian Motion

The simulations will be performed in hands-on classes. The lectures provide the key concepts and introductions to the relevant physics.

Regular participation in lectures and tutorials. Final oral exam and programming project.

Lecture notes and videos (available in OLAT)

Solid background in statistical physics at Bachelor level.

This class is valid for the specialisations many-body physics, computational physics, and quantum sciences.