Mathematical topics: a review of group theory, representations, irreducibility, complete reducibility, Schur's lemma, character theory, induced representations, Lie groups, Haar measure, the Peter-Weyl theorem, and Lie algebras.
Examples: cyclic groups, dihedral groups, symmetric groups, SU(2), SO(3), SL(2,C), SO(3,1), the Poincare group, SU(n), GL(n), etc.
Physical topics: molecular vibrations, radiation, exchange forces, the hydrogen atom, wave equations, quarks, TQFTs (including knot invariants) and quantum gravity.
The course will meet for 4 hours each week, for a total of 10 weeks, starting Tuesday, January 16. The 10 weeks won't be consecutive, as I will be away from time to time.
Text: The text is Shlomo Sternberg's Group Theory in Physics. The library copy is on 2-hour reserve. I have asked the book store to order 5 copies, but I don't know when they will arrive. Some used copies are available via amazon.ca. You can view some of the introductory pages (including the table of contents) at amazon.com.
Homework: Homework will be due roughly every two weeks.
Presentations: In the second half of the semester, each student will give a presentation on a topic related to the course.
Exam: There will be a final exam at the end of the course.
Evaluation: Evaluation will be based upon homework, presentations and the final exam.