PHY 198

Physics at the Cutting Edge

Instructor: Professor Sajeev John
Office: MP 1002
tel (416) 978 3459
john@physics.utoronto.ca
Office Hours: By appointment

Secretary: Helen Iyer (MP 1109, tel (416) 978-7135)

Topics | Reading Material | Grading | Class Materials | Class Schedule | Guidelines for Weekly Report | Guidelines for Final Project and Presentation | Schedule of Final Presentations

Topics

This course is intended to provide a qualitative view of front line research in physics as represented by the weekly Physics Colloquium. The aim is to provide a connection between the rigorous and quantitative tools that students learn in traditional courses and present-day science. Weekly readings will be provided to give students background to both better understand colloquium and to interact intelligently with the colloquium speaker. When possible, students will be given an opportunity to meet with the colloquium speaker, learn about their scientific experience, hear about the big open questions in the field, and ask questions. Class time will also involve a seminar on a topic related to the general area of the Physics Colloquium for that particular week. This will involve a related area of front line research, provide some background physics to the colloquium, and give some orientation to the subject.

While other undergraduate courses in physics provide quantitative tools that rigorously treat idealized model systems, they often oversimplify real-life problems. Also in the lengthy process of acquiring tools to solve physics problems, one often loses sight of the forest among a thicket of trees. This course is intended to provide a balance to the standard training in the discipline of physics by exposing students to real-life problems and motivating their concurrent quantitative study of physics. At the same time course will aim to expose students to famous laws and fundamental equations of physics (e.g. Maxwell's equations, Schrodinger's equation, E=mc² etc.) so that when these are encountered later in undergraduate studies, students will already have some intuition for them.

In addition to attending the scheduled class times (Thursdays from 2:10-3:45pm in MP408) students are expected to attend the weekly physics colloquium that takes place right after class (from 4-5pm in MP102). A weekly report describing what students learned from the colloquium and their in-class interactions with speakers will be an integral component of the course grade.

Reading Material

There is no text book for this course. Instead discussions in class will be supplemented with articles posted online (see below) and include references to material available on the web and/or in the scientific press (Scientific American, Physics Today, or physics journals). These should be available online from computers that are on-campus as the UofT libraries have electronic subscriptions for most of them.

Grading Scheme

	Date	Fraction of Grade
Class Participation		10%
Weekly Reports		40%
Final Group Presentation		20%
Individual Written Contribution to Group Project		30%

Class Materials

Given the coupling to the weekly colloquia there will be no attempt to build a progressive curriculum. Instead material will appear in episodes, with the goal of making each week's pre-class reading, class and eventually attendance at the colloquium a coherent module. General articles pertaining to the topic of the colloquium are posted below and will be updated closer to the day of the colloquium. Additional materials may be posted ahead of the class (maybe with less than a week's notice) as suggested by the colloquium speaker or their local host.

Other materials may be posted after each class meeting.

Class Schedule

Class Date	Topic	Pre-Class Reading	Speakers
January 9, 2020	Organizational Meeting	The Causes of Color	Sajeev John
January 16, 2020	Alternatives to Ordered Phases at Zero Temperature	The World of Quantum Matter Spin Liquids	Stephen Julian Meigan Aronson
January 23, 2020	Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter: A New Frontier	Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Frontier of Astronomy Dark Matter New direct-detection constraints on Sub-GeV dark matter The hunt for light dark matter Lighting the way for dark matter	David Curtin Rouven Essig
January 30, 2020	Utilizing Physics-Based Models to Manage the Risk of Injection-Induced Seismicity Associated with Unconventional Oil and Gas Production	Physics-based forecasting of man-made earthquake hazards in Oklahoma and Kansas Hydraulic Fracturing: The State of the Science	Qinya Liu Mark Zoback
February 6, 2020	How nuclear physics can treat cancer - radiotherapy at TRIUMF	The Rarest Drug on Earth Colloquium Preview	Pekka Sinervo Cornelia Hoehr
February 13, 2020	CHIME: The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment	Fast Radio Bursts What are Fast Radio Bursts? Flashes in the Night	Chris Thompson Kendrick Smith
February 27, 2020	The surprising case of CFC-11: Have we fallen off the path to ozone layer recovery?	Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018 Twenty Questions and Answers about the Ozone Layer: 2018 Update An unexpected and persistent increase in global emissions of ozone-depleting CFC-11	Paul Kushner Stephen Montzka
March 5, 2020	Measurements: For all time, for all people (The dawning of a new age)	Spooky Action at a Distance One Photon In, TWO Photons Out	Sajeev John Alan Migdall
March 12, 2020	CANCELLED
March 19, 2020	Preparation for Final Presentation
March 26, 2020	Final Presentations
April 2, 2020	Final Presentations