Posts tagged AQM

Here is the summary of the results of the mid-term survey of the course of Advanced Quantum mechanics.

Most important points

• Little appreciation for the presentations. Still misunderstandings of their meaning
• Contrasting opinions about the lectures
• Requests for non-existing “simpler” exercises

was about classical stuff, representation of oscillators – rather technical and preparatory, but necessary, and, with several anecdotes, not boring.

The timing was good, though I could go faster in the first half of the lecture and slower in the second half. However, I’ve a bad feeling of not being understood completely. Perhaps next time I need to reserve time to make several simple calculations explicitly — you never know.

My question “Who does not know what vector potential is?” usually was answered positively by 20% of students. This time no single hand was risen. I wonder if the education has been improved or the question was not understood 🙂

This year I got a very convenient lecture room, zaal E, that can house almost an infinite number of students and has a slanted floor. I gave the same course in this room yet 10 years ago. It took a bit of time to adjust: and I could enjoy again. An inconvenience is that the lectures take place on early Monday morning 🙁

Despite this, the audience was full – not unusual for the first lecture. I took time explaining the rules of the course (those I myself find rather complex). Not that I felt understood, but I said what I had to. The stuff went rather fast. Nobody has heard of Heisenberg picture, no single hand – all right, but with this it went only faster. Still I was very vague about qubits and had to skip the harmonic oscillator – too much time lost in the beginning.

I had like 4 minutes for density matrix – no preliminary knowledge as well. Looked enough, but I have discovered that the outlining of the partial trace is too abstract to be taught that quickly …

Fortunately, there was enough time on Thursday. The presentations were fine, including density matrix from thermodynamical point of view. And I told about partial trace, slowly and with details – that seemed to go into open ears. Fine!

The semester is over – well, almost, we need to prepare the exams, yet it all will happen very soon. The end of the semester was pretty busy so I had no mood neither time for the blog. I shall only do what I ought to – to publish the results of the last survey on Advanced Quantum Mechanics course made on 1-6-2015, during one of the last lectures. Students by this time had very certain opinion about the course, were rather critical, yet could appreciate the good parts of it. That I can also judge from a big number of the students (52) who are going to take the exam.
Ok, questions and answers:
In my opinion, the content of this course is relevant to my education (from -2 to 2) 1.4

This course corresponds well to my prior knowledge (from -2 to 2) 0.8

In relation to the amount of credit points, the actual study load of this course was much higher (from -2 to 2) 0

The lecturer explain the subject matter clearly (from -2 to 2) 0.3

The lecturer discuss the subject matter in a stimulating way (from -2 to 2) 0.2

The instructors give sufficient feedback on student presentations (from -2 to 2 ) 1.53 here we have improved a lot !

The problem-solving sessions are interesting and useful (from -2 to 2 ) -0.22 we need to restructure the problem-solving sessions

English mark for the teacher (from 0 to 10 ) 6.7
English mark for the instructors (from 0 to 10 ) 8.3 good

The lecturer should present the material with more examples . OK

The problem-solving sessions should be with more discussions. OK

This course is well organised (supply of information, scheduling) (from -2 to 2 ) 1.4 much improvement!

I will go on with the course and come to the examination. Majority answered undoubtedly.

What mark do you expect to get at the exam? 6.9
Do you use the book? Majority uses it regulary

The overal mark:
lectures 6.6
problem-solving sessions 6.1 have to do something about
the whole course 7.2 could be better

we wouldn’t mind to score more, yet it’s not a big problem

I have also interesting remarks from the students, to be posted later.

Can’t believe I got so far before the semester break: we have sucsesfully quantized the classical fields! The stuff is still rather technical and boring, yet in the second half we’ve discussed fancy effects of zero-point energy, vacuum fluctuations and uncertainties. It was on time: wish I am so good next time, I expect more difficulties)).

was about classical fields. O, I did the half! The topic may feel boring: all oscillators, waves, linear equations can be brought to the same standard form. Perhaps I will have to arrange some entertainment next time. The timing was good: actually, did not expect this 🙂

I took time slot of a Thursday problem-solving session. This was mostly to achieve a better synchronization between the lectures and PPS. Unfortunate effect on this is that the students are bored with my face since I show up too often. So I was told by my colleagues. I have to believe in this since I myself is seldom bored with my own face.

Anyway, this was my favorite topic(s): superconductivity and superfluidity. I enjoyed talking and told at least three “side” stories, in particular, the legend about Leiden street boy. I think I could do all important things on time.

There was a question about some skipped algebra in the break. I always get confused with such questions and perhaps did not react adequately. Actually, for all twenty years I’m giving the lectures I never managed to derive for myself a golden rule that would automatically tell me how much derivations I need to hide. So I always remain in a stressfull balance between “…substitute zis to zis and see how beautiful is the cancellation of factors of 2 in the numerator and denominator…” and “as, you know, you can easily see …” Between Scylla and Charybdis is my endless way 🙂