Sommersemester 2024

General Information

The course "Introduction to Computational Physics" can be part of both Bachelor and Master studies in physics. Its description can be found in the Bachelor Handbook under THIS link.

Lecturers

Ralf Klessen
Dylan Nelson
Stefan Reissl
 

Schedule

17./19.4.24 Introduction
24./26.4.24 Ordinary Differential Equations 1: two-body, Euler method
01./03.5.24 Ordinary Differential Equations 2: Runge-Kutta, higher order schemes
08./10.5.24 Ordinary Differential Equations 3: population dynamics
15./17.5.24 Ordinary Differential Equations 4: population dynamics, Lorenz attractor
22./24.5.24 Ordinary Differential Equations 5: Lorenz attractor, nonlinear dynamics
29./31.5.24 Linear Algebra 1: matrices, eigenvalues, basics
05./07.6.24 Linear Algebra 2: Householder, QR methods
12./14.6.24 Linear Algebra 3: quantum mechanical oscillator, Schrödinger equation
19./21.6.24 Linear Algebra 4: continued
26./28.6.24 Random number, Monte Carlo methods 1: integration
03./05.7.24 Monte Carlo methods 2: Ising model
10./12.7.24 Monte Carlo methods 3: Ising model
17./19.7.23 Repetition and discussions
24./26.7.23 no lectures

Grades

This course is not graded, there is only "pass" or "not pass". Please note the following conditions to pass the course: Every individual person needs to present homework or presence work to the tutorial group. We keep track of this. It is advisable to use this opportunity soon, because exercise tasks will get more complex with time and also slots for presentation may become harder to get. This presentation is a necessary condition for passing the course. In addition, getting 60% of the homework points is required.

Tutorials and Homework

The exercise sheets typically have an introductory part to be discussed during the tutorials in preparation of the homework assignments. When handing in their homework, students should summarize their answers (graphs, values, text answers, etc) and provide them to the tutors by sending or uploading one single file (PDF, python notebook, or similar).

The preferred programming language is python. In principle, we allow students to use any software and programming language to write and create your files and codes as long as at the end there is one file (most preferable: PDF) with the required content (including source files if applicable). But note that for the use of other very exotic or unusual programming languages, there may be less or no support available from the tutors.

We encourage to work in groups of two and submit the homework as group. One document per group is sufficient, but the names of all group members need to be included. Homework submitted by groups of three or more is not permitted.

Tutorial Schedule and Location

We have four tutorial groups starting on Friday, April 26):

Group 1: Friday, 13h - 16h, KIP CIP Pool (INF 227, room 1.401)
Group 2: Friday, 13h - 16h, PI CIP Pool (INF 226, seminar room on first floor)
Group 3: Monday, 13h - 16h, KIP CIP Pool (INF 227, room 1.401)
Group 4: Monday, 13h - 16h, Phil12 CIP Pool (Philosophenweg 12, seminar room in side building)

Tutors

Joris Josiek
Florian Schulze
Nicholas Strom
Jia Wei Teh

The course takes 1 week:  April 8-12 2024. One of three homework sets is supposed to be submitted in the following week of the course while two homework sets are to be submitted and finalized during the course.

One passes the course (without grade) after obtaining 60% of the total points of each problem set.

The schedule comprises lectures with exercises and a tutorial per day (9 am to 5 pm).

Students have to bring their own laptop!