Computational Physics 2

Lecture Notes

Please read lecture notes before class.
Monday, February 8:   Topic 3 Lecture 1,   md.cpp.
Wednesday, February 3:   Topic 2 Lecture 4,   poisson-mg.cpp,   poisson-mg.m.
Monday, February 1:   Topic 2 Lecture 3,   poisson-fft.cpp,   poisson-fft.m.
Friday, January 29:   Topic 2 Lecture 2,   poisson-matrix.cpp,   poisson-matrix.m.
Wednesday, January 27:   Topic 2 Lecture 1,   poisson.m,   poisson.cpp.
Monday, January 25:   Topic 1 Lecture 6,   hodgkin-huxley.m,   hodgkin-huxley.cpp.
Friday, January 22:   Topic 1 Lecture 5,   wavepacket.m,   wavepacket.cpp.
Wednesday, January 20:   Topic 1 Lecture 4,   advection.m,   advection.cpp.
Friday, January 15:   Topic 1 Lecture 3.
Wednesday, January 13:   Topic 1 Lecture 2,   diffusion.cpp,   diffusion.m.
Monday, January 11:   Topic 1 Lecture 1.

Homework Assignments

Homework must be submitted as a single PDF file to the Digital Dropbox on UBlearns. Please select "Send" and click "Submit" to make your file accessible to me, see UBlearns Help > Students > Assignments & Tests > Digital Dropbox.

Homework Assignment 2 is due Sunday, February 14 before 11:59 pm.
Homework Assignment 1 is due Sunday, January 29 before 11:59 pm.

Semester Project

Please start thinking about your semester project!!

• Project Presentations, Thursday April 29, 3:30 pm - 6:30 pm in Baldy 112, see Final Exam Schedule
• Project suggestions from Dr. Furnstahl's Course
• Class Projects from Dr. Adler's Course
• Project References from Dr. Gould's Simulations in Physics book web site.
• Sample Presentation, Sample Code, Sample Report

Syllabus

The course syllabus in PDF format syllabus.pdf lists course information, requirements, deadlines, and other important information.

Textbooks

There is no required textbook for this course. In previous semesters we used Giordano and Nakanishi, Gould, Tobochnik and Christian, Pang, Garcia. Any one of these would be appropriate if you would like to purchase a supplementary reference. Check out these excellent Lecture Notes by Professor Hjorth-Jensen. To learn C++ start with Herb Schildt's C++ Beginner's Guide and refer to Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++ for more advanced concepts. For much much more check out The C++ Programming Language by its inventor. Numerical Recipes is an excellent resource, unfortunately not free: older editions are available free online.

Questions, Comments, ...

The preferred forum for subject-related questions and comments is the Discussion Board on UBlearns. Feel free to contribute answers as well as ask questions! Email me at phygons@buffalo.edu regarding personal issues.

Deadlines

• Homework Assignment 2 hwk2.pdf is due Sunday February 14.
• Semester Project:
  • One page abstract with title, description, references due Sunday January 31, UBlearns Digital Dropbox
  • Progress report: 5-10 min in class, Friday February 5

Computer

Check that your computer satisfies minimum UB Hardware Standards. Add memory if your older machine is slowing down, and defragment the hard drive.

Software

If you do not already have a C++ development environment and numerical tools, download the required software and start learning to use it:

• C++ development tools to code homework assignments.

  Windows

  Visual C++ Express
  OR Cygwin (bash, g++, ...)

  Macintosh

  Xcode

  Linux

  GCC4. Many Linux programmers use Emacs or vi for code development. Check out this list of C/C++ IDEs if you want something like Visual C++ or Xcode.

• We will use the GNU Scientific Library

  Windows

  Visual C++ Express 2008 binaries can be downloaded from David Goldreich's website.

• Mathematica for symbolic computation, graphics, and more. Bookmark the Mathematica Documentation Center, and work through Fundamentals of Mathematica Programming.
  UB has site licenses for Mathematica ($9.95), Maple (Free), and MATLAB ($29.95), see UBIT Software.
• Gnuplot to plot data. Bookmark the Gnuplot not so FAQ.
  For alternatives see Wikipedia's Graphics Software, check out SciDAVis. Mac users check out Plot.
• We will use OpenGL and GLUT to program animations in a GUI. See the OpenGL and GLUT HOWTO for instructions on setting up GLUT on your computer.

Optional recommended software: Make sure your Word Processor can output PDF (required format for homework). If you use Microsoft Word you may need to download and install PDF Support. I strongly recommend LaTeX for scientific word processing: for an excellent free WYSIWYM LaTeX document processor check out LyX.