Modern Physics for Com. Sc. and Cyb.

Lecturer:

Tutor:

Supervisor:

Department of Physics

Synopsis:

Concepts and problems in the frontiers of physics, computer science, informatics and cybernetics. Information as a physical concept. Key words: deterministic chaos, fractals, mathematical logic, quantum effects, quantum computation, entropy, information, selforganisation, life.

Requirements:

Syllabus of lectures:

1. Problems at the frontiers of physics, informatics, computation and cybernetics

2. Dynamical systems, conservative and dissipative

3. Analytical methods in mechanism, canonical coordinates

4. Deterministic chaos, unpredictability, attractors

5. Fractals in mathematics and in nature, non-integer dimensions

6. Axiomatic structure of mathematics, its limits (Gödel)

7. Fundamental concepts of quantum theory. Quantum structure of matter

8. Quantum measurement, its information aspects

9. Quantum computation, possibilities, perspectives

10. Entropy in physics and in information theory

11. Dissipation of energy when computing. „Maxwell's demon“.

12. Computation as a natural process. Information as a physical concepts

13. Open systems, selforganisation, structures, complexity

14. Synergetics, life, evolution

Syllabus of tutorials:

1. Examples of dynamical systems in science and in technology

2. Lagrange and Hamilton equations

3. Chaotic systems, examples

4. Computational pictures of fractals

5. Real numbers, sets, mathematics and science

6. Algorithmic randomness and its applications

7. Quantum effects, examples

8. Solution of selected problems in quantum mechanics

9. Quantum paradoxes, interpretations

10. Entropy and its various connections

11. Szilard's heat engine, Maxwell's demon, discussion

12. Simulations, artificial life

13. Information as a physical concept

14. Perspectives

Study Objective:

Study materials:

[1] Recommended review articles in journals

[2] Horák, J., Krlín, L.: Deterministický chaos. Academica Praha 1996

[3] Schuster, H. G.: Deterministic chaos (An Introduction). Weinheim, 1988

[4] Zurek, W. H. (Ed.): Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information. Addison- Wesley, 1990

Note:

Further information:

No time-table has been prepared for this course

The course is a part of the following study plans: