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Posted in April 2011

Eighth Lecture Advanced Statistical Mechanics

I’m posting back in time again, had no occasion to do it on correct date

I managed to repay my debt and to finish the previous lecture, and still round up the stuff of the eighth one. Good me. The stuff therefore had to be easy-going, and I skipped many details I would tell if I had more time. I’m happy I did so: it made it a better lecture.

We have discussed the relation between quantum mechanics and (1d) statistical physics, important and fascinating subject. The students were not abundant. What surprised me most is their reaction on a photograph I used when mentioning path integrals. That supposed to be funny and was met with stone faces. Was I not supposed to joke about path integrals?

Eighth Lecture Quantum Transport

I’m posting back in time: the last week of April was very hard to me, too much urgent and boring work during/after Paschal joy. Eighth lecture is about the origin of quantum transport, weak localization and mesoscopic fluctuations. I have renovated it a year ago and was not satisfied with the result. I had to trim the stuff a while before the lecture.

After all, it wasn’t bad on my feeling, I guess I could reach some equilibrium between formulas and pictures. Yet I was tired and mouth-tied for some reason, spoke with difficulty, and, to my own astonishment, mixed up English tenses.

Though Chris Drost was kind enough to say he didn’t noticed this.

Christ is risen!

Joy overwhelms me, I forget all my problems and quirks, Christ is risen for all of us, dear reader!

Silent Saturday

I like the service of today very much, it is like an annual milestone for me. Despite this, this morning is kind of out time, every year it passes in the same, time-invariant fashion. Very, very strange day.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and stand with fear and trembling, and take no thought for any earthly thing; for the King of kings and Lord of lords comes to be slain and given as food for the faithful.

Mourn not for me, O Mother, as you behold in the grave the Son, whom without seed you conceived in your womb; for I shall arise and be glorified, and as God I shall exalt in glory without end those who magnify you with faith and love.

Great Friday

the day of mourn, pain and hope rising from pain.

Every year, in the end of the day, I find it important for my dignity to listen to the following profesy: Ezek. 37:1-13(though it counts like Saturday Matins, I think)

[1] The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
[2] And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
[3] And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.
[4] Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
[5] Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
[6] And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
[7] So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
[8] And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
[9] Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
[10] So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
[11] Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
[12] Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
[13] And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

Seventh Lecture Advanced Quantum Mechanics

has taken place today. It was difficult material-wise. I am not satisfied with the way Kardar presents the transition between his particle book and his field book. In fact, I think that the aspects worth mentioned right at the transition are certaintly present in the book: but scattered in pieces over at least four chapters. So I wanted to proceed differently, and brought these pieces together. The lecture is supposed to consist of philosophical part, intermezzio of Ising model, and description of methods general for all the models.

Well, I have had a terrible time problem. It looked like a first lecture I ever prepared. The philosophical part was told in more or less normal tempo. Yet I have to speed up already at Ising model and begun to skip some details. As to the methods part, I could only do mean field: I’d need 15-20 minutes more to finish the part. Terrible. I’ve spent so much time to prepare the lecture, was anxious about the presentation so I worked till 2 a.m. today. The result was clearly below the expectations.

There must be a way to present the stuff the way planned. I swear that next year I’ll practice the lecture again with timer in hand. And will go to bed well before 2 a.m.

Seventh Lecture Quantum Transport

has taken place today. One of the most spectacular topics and one of the highest achievements of quantum transport so far: home-made quantum mechanics achieved by combining Josephson effect and Coulomb blockade.

It looks like a semester break was enough for deterioration of my professional qualities. Although the lecture has not that many slides and originally (five years ago) has been planned as 45 min lecture, I did not manage to organize time-line correctly: too much bubble-talking at first slides, way too fast presentation of the last slides. There were times I did this lecture better. However, I think there was a contact with the audience, so I’m marginally satisfied.

Palm sunday

was there yesterday, a wonderful feast of meeting our Lord entering Jerusalem, a joy mixed with premonition of His suffering.

Our priest preached the following (not sure I reproduce this as it meant, rather, it’s like it came to me.

You stay here today with box branches, imitating the crowd that met our Lord in Jerusalem with palm leaves. Like they, you exclaim “Hosanna”, that is, “Save us!”.

Yet do you remember that just in a couple of days the same crowd cried out:”Crucify him!”? It is simple to say: “We are not they, that we will not imitate”. It takes an effort to understand why did they do so.

They did so because the salvation did not come in forms desired. There were no spectacular triumph, neither immediate liberation. Instead, something strange has happened.

And when we pray “Save us”, what salvation do we ask for? Isn’t this an immediate liberation from everyday burdens and inconveniences? Isn’t that a request of immediate and spectacular prevailing of “good” (that’s us) over “bad”?

So are we ready to accept our salvation in a way He likes?

Polarons in suspended carbon nanotubes

this news deservers more comment and expressiveness for me, but I have to keep it short:
Izak Snyman and me have submitted today our study on polarons suspended. You can read it here, please enjoy!

Coulomb blockade of Majorana fermions: research proposal

There’s many interesting things going around, yet I do not write anything since I have to write something I have to be completely adsorbed with. This is another attempt to get a research grant in national competition, FOM Projectruimte.

Although Majorana’s is very popular topic, few works actually address the question of their interaction. See a chance to exercise my expertise since I’ve been working with superconductivity, Coulom blockade and zero-energy states in there already 20 years ago.

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