Physics H190

Quantum Effects in Gravity: Unruh Effect, Particle Creation in the Early Universe, Hawking Radiation, Etc.

Spring, 2013

University of California, Berkeley

Instructor:  Robert Littlejohn
Office:  449 Birge
Office Hours:   Th 4-5
Telephone:  642-1229
Email:  physicsh190@wigner.berkeley.edu
Lecture: 223 Dwinelle
Time:  W 4-6
Text:  Introduction to Quantum Effects in Gravity, by V. F. Mukhanov and S. Winitzki (not required)
(Cambridge, 2007).


Organization and Logistics

The email address for this course is physicsh190@wigner.berkeley.edu.   If you wish to be included on the mailing list for course announcements, homework notices, etc., send an email to this address with your name.   (You don't have to be enrolled.)  If you drop the course or don't want to receive any more announcements, send an email to this address with a request to be dropped. 

The class will be organized much like a regular lecture course, except that we will cover 1/2 as much material
(since the course has only 2 units). I will also try various strategies to keep it as painless as possible for you, but you will have to do some work and some studying.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for the course are honors standing, Physics 137AB, and knowledge of special relativity. I will only assume some basic knowledge of Lorentz transformations.   With instructor's permission
you may take 137B concurrently.   Honors standing means a 3.3 average in upper division Physics
courses.  You do not have to be working on or planning an honors project (which is needed however
to graduate with honors.)

Grade, Exams

The grade will be based on weekly homework.  There will be no final exam.

Homework Policy

Homework will be posted on this web site normally by Friday of each week.    Homeworks will be due
in class, Wednesday at 4pm.   I will give approximately half as much homework as I would give in a regular
lecture class.  Late homeworks will be accepted at 1/2 credit (up to one week late).  Homework more than
one week late will not be accepted.  Exception:  Each student is allowed one free late homework
per semester (up to one week late), no questions asked.

Course Outline

Homework Assignments




Lecture Notes are Professor Littlejohn's hand-written notes for lectures.   The lectures will not simply be a
regurgitation of the book, rather they will give a different and sometimes deeper perspective on the material
in the book.   The lecture notes posted here will usually be like the actual lectures, but no guarantees are
made.


Reprints are from the book Introduction to Quantum Effects in Gravity, by V. F. Mukhanov and S. Winitzki (Cambridge, 2007). My lectures are loosely based on the topics in the book, but I make no attempt to follow it in detail since I think it is not workable for this class. Nevertheless, you can learn some things by reading the book, even parts you do not understand, so I have posted some chapters here.