Courses

The Theoretical Physics Profile of our Graduates

The School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Sciences has a 5-year program of study that leads to an M.Sc. degree in physics or mathematics. The first two years are common for both majors and contain a list of compulsory courses, mainly in mathematics, physics, and computing. Physics majors make their selection in the beginning of the 5th semester and after that they choose 2 out of 5 subjects of study, one of which is "Computational and Theoretical Physics". These students obtain the solid background necessary in order to do research within the Ph.D. program of any good academic institution in Greece or abroad. The school operates since 1999 and several of our graduates have already been offered prestigious academic positions in some of the best physics departments worldwide.

Our group also supports several courses taught in our graduate program "Physics and Technological Applications", an interdepartmental program that prepares students from several Greek universities to start a Ph.D. in physics with members of our group or in other academic institutions. The curriculum includes graduate courses, from classical mechanics to quantum field theory, that ensures that all students that choose to pursue a Ph.D. in theoretical physics will obtain the necessary background that will enable them to start doing high-quality research. The program leads to an M.Sc. in Physics and our best students continue their studies towards a Ph.D. in physics.

Program of Study

The courses that are compulsory for the students following the "Computational and Theoretical Physics" direction are:

  • ◼ Electromagnetism II
  • ◼ Quantum Mechanics II
  • ◼ Statistical Physics
  • ◼ Nuclear Physics
  • ◼ Elementary Particles I+II
  • ◼ Atomic and Molecular Physics (Quantum Mechanics III)
  • ◼ Condensed Matter Physics
  • ◼ Group Theory in Physics
  • ◼ Computational Physics I
  • ◼ General Theory of Relativity and Cosmology or Computational Physics II
  • ◼ Theoretical Physics (Elementary Particle Theory) or Many Body Physics and Quantum Computing
A partial list of some of the basic compulsory courses, common for all physics and mathematics majors includes:
  • ◼ Physics I (Mechanics)
  • ◼ Physics II (Electromagnetism I)
  • ◼ Physics III (Waves)
  • ◼ Physics IV (Quantum Mechanics)
  • ◼ Mechanics I+II
  • ◼ Thermodynamics
  • ◼ Scientific Computing
These courses are supplemented by many compulsory courses in mathematics (real and complex analysis, linear algebra, statistics, numerical analysis, differential equations) and computing (object-oriented programming, programming in Matlab, Maxima, Fortran, and R), as well as by several other elective courses in mathematics and physics. The full program of study is available here.

Graduate courses

A partial list of the courses offered in our graduate program "Physics and Technological Applications" which are relevant for a theoretical physics profile are:

  • ◼ Theoretical Mechanics
  • ◼ Electromagnetism I+II
  • ◼ Quantum Mechanics I+II
  • ◼ Statistical Physics
  • ◼ Condensed Matter Physics
  • ◼ Nuclear Physics
  • ◼ Mathematical Methods in Physics
  • ◼ Quantum Field Theory I+II
  • ◼ General Relativity
  • ◼ Computational and Statistical Methods in Physics