Eligibility for breadth courses in the 680 series may vary,
depending on the subject matter (accelerator physics, physics of hot dense nuclear matter, microelectronics, etc.),
and usually announced before the beginning of the semester. Here are extracts from the relevant emails sent by the Graduate
Program Director:
August 19, 2008
There is a minor change in the course requirements, and PHY 541 "Advanced Statistical Mechanics" will be accepted to satisfy
the core requirement, equivalent to PHY 540 "Advanced Statistical Mechanics". From now on PHY 541 is offered in the Fall and
PHY 540 is offered in the Spring.
Sacha Abanov is going to teach PHY 503, "Mathematical Physics" again. This not a breadth course, but it is a great course
for students who want to learn about complex functions, contour integration, asymptotic methods and a little bit of topology.
Hal Metcalf's PHY 514 "Research Instruments" will introduce the students to many experimental groups in the Department.
This is a required course to MSI students, but many Ph.D. students may find it useful as well. (Not a breadht course.)
Peter van van Nieuwenhuizen's PHY 680, "Advanced Quantum Field Theory" will be offered MoWe 4:0OPM - 6:00PM, although the Solar listing is different. If you see cannot register to the course because of a time conflict with another course (due to the incorrect Solar times), please let me know, and I will help. Please note that this course is not a breadth course.
Anand Sivaramakrishnan and Michal Simon will teach PHY 683, a special topic course in Astronomy. This course is accepted as a breadth course for non-astronomy students.
If you want to take a course, please do not plan to audit it, but register. Registration is important, because courses may be canceled if the number of registered students is too low.
Please register to the Colloquium, especially if you are an advanced student, doing mostly research.
The 0 credit option is an accounting trick to allow you more flexibility in your course selection. Register to 0 credit ONLY if you have no other way to stay within the maximum number of credits allowed by you graduate status. Registering for 0 credit does NOT mean that you have to do less course work.
November 28, 2007; updated January 16, 2008
PHY 680.1 (Quantum Computing) - Breadth course, except for those doing Ph.D. in quantum computing
PHY 680.2 (Biological Physics) - Breadth course, except for those doing Ph.D. in biology
PHY 680.1 (Supersymmetry and Supergravity) - Not a breadth course
PHY 556 (Solid State Physics II) is accepted only if you did not have PHY 555 as a breadth course.
Courses offered
by other Departments may be accepted as a breadth courses, but should be cleared with me before registering.
Note: PHY 540 will not be offered in the Fall, 2008 semester.
August. 30, 2007.
The Fall courses are posted on Solar and also on our WEB page,
http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/Physics_Courses.html . Notice that there
will be no PHY 540 (it will be offered in the Spring). We are planning to
offer four "Special Topics" courses: PHY 680: Group Theory, PHY 682:
Optics on Correlated Electrons, PHY 684: Accelerator Physics and PHY 688:
Nuclear Astrophysics. Here are the rules in terms of breadth requirements:
PHY 680: Not a breadth course
PHY 682: Breadth course, except for students in condensed matter
PHY 684: Breadth course, except for students in accelerator physics
PHY 688: Breadth course, except for students in astronomy or nuclear physics
Register early. Notice that some of these courses may get canceled if there
is no sufficient registration.
Dec. 6, 2006.
PHY 680, Biological Physics: Breadth course, except for students in biology related areas.
PHY 684, Accelerator Physics: Breadth course for all students, except those working in accelerator physics.
"... PHY 551, 556, 612, 680, 684 are potential breadth courses. Consult the
table in http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/ for information about the
acceptance of breadth courses. PHY 680 is not listed in the table, but
it will be accepted as a breadth course, except if you do your Ph.D. in
a field closely related to biological physics. Talk to me if you have
any doubt. PHY 556 (Solid State Physics II) is accepted only if you did
not have PHY 555 as a breadth course. PHY 684 is a breadth course for
everyone, except for those doing a Ph.D. in accelerator physics.
Courses offered by other Departments may be accepted as a breadth
courses, but should be cleared with me before registering."
Dec. 16, 2004.
PHY 685, Nonlinear dynamics: Not a breadth course
PHY 680.01, Biological Physics: Breadth course, except for students in biology related areas.
PHY 680.02, Advanced QCD: Not a breadth course
"... We have recently added a new course, PHY 685 (Nonlinear dynamics) to the
course listing at http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/Physics_Courses.html .
Peter Kahn will teach this course. Although the course is listed at the 600
level, it will be appropriate to any grad student. There are no
prerequisites. See the course description, and Prof. Kahn's recent paper at
http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/courses_2005_spring/kahn.pdf for an idea
about the material covered. This course does not satisfy breadth
requirements, but it is definitely recommended.
PHY 522, 551, 556, 565, 680 are potential breadth courses. Consult the table
in http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu/ for information about the acceptance
of breadth courses. PHY 680 (Biological Physics) is a new course and it is
not (yet) listed in the table, but it will be accepted as a breadth course,
except if you do your Ph.D. in a related field. Talk to me if there is any
doubt. Note that the first part of the Nuclear physics sequence (PHY 551)
is offered in the Spring; if you miss it now, you will have to wait a year.
PHY 556 (Solid State Physics II) is accepted only if you did not have PHY
555 as a breadth course...."
Aug 31, 2004.
PHY 684.01, Topics in Nuclear Physics: Not a breadth course
PHY 684.02, Accelerator Physics: Breadth course, except for students in experimental particle, nuclear and X-ray physics.
PHY 684.03, Many-body Nuclear Physics: Not a breadth course
"...This semester we offer three courses in the PHY 684 series: Topics in
Nuclear Physics (Shuryak), Accelerator Physics (McKay) and Many-body Nuclear
Physics (Kuo). Please contact the instructors directly if you are
interested. Talk or email to me if you want to know if the course is
accepted as a breadth course for you...."
Dec. 16, 2003.
"...Graduate students looking for breadth courses should look at
http://graduate.physics.sunysb.edu
and scroll down to the relevant table (it is reproduced at the end of this
message, but may not be readable on your computer).
We will have an excellent selection of courses offered in the Spring
semester:
PHY 523, Galaxies (Aaron)
PHY 551, Nuclear (Pietralla)
PHY 556 Solid state II (Allen)
PHY 565, Quantum electronics (Metcalf)
PHY 683, Radiation (Kirz)
These courses can be taken for 0-3 credits. I want to emphasize that
students taking the course for zero credits should do all the work, and do
all exams just as the students taking it for credit. In order for a breadth
course to count you will need a final grade of B or better.
Do not hesitate to contact Diane, Pat or me if you have any questions...."
