Ph

In my last post, I pointed out that I'm chronologically approximately halfway through my PhD studies.  I recently confirmed that purely by number of requirements, I'm now two thirds of the way through.

There are nine requirements to the PhD here.

1) Qualifying exam part I.  This is a general exam testing undergraduate physics.  It is strongly advised (until the year after me it was required) that students take it at the beginning of orientation.  It consists of 20 short questions, ranging across the physics spectrum, to be answered in 5 hours.  I studied reasonably hard for it, and correctly thought that I had probably passed.

2) First required course.  For a condensed matter theorist, this is Theory of Solids I.  This is a typical introductory graduate solid state physics course, covering Sommerfeld theory, crystal structure and band theory, semiclassical dynamics, and lattice vibrations.  In my study for part III, I formed a concept of what I believe the structure of the solid state syllabus is, and this was the first half - the organisation was close to but not exactly what I say here.

3) Qualifying exam part II.  This again covers general physics, mostly at the undergraduate level.  The level is perhaps a little higher than part I, but the main difference is that the questions are longer: 4 multipart questions instead of 20 short questions.  The 4 questions are on classical mechanics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism.  I took this in January of my first year, and felt very good coming out of the exam, so I was unsurprised to find that I had passed.

4) First breadth course.  We are required to study two courses within physics but outside our specialty.  I decided to take plasma physics.  This was partly because my supervisor recommended it - it uses some of the same concepts as electrochemistry but in a very different regime.  It was also partly because it was there on offer.  Other obvious choices were atomic physics, which I would probably have taken had it been offered at a more opportune time (it's only available every second year), and quantum field theory, which I used to think I'd never want to study.  I still may never study QFT, but spending some time looking back at hard condensed matter physics makes it seem more attractive.  I think it's just that it was two levels of confusion up for me, but now that I think I understand much of condensed matter theory, I could cope with the next step.

5) Second required course.  This was Theory of Solids II (bet you didn't see that coming!!).  It covered linear response theory, quantum Hall effect, superconductivity and magnetism.  I wrote in my notes from the first lecture that where solids I was mostly about independent electrons, solids II was interacting electrons.

6) Second breadth course.  Rather than one of the options I discussed above, I took Modelling Environmental Complexity.  This was taught by Dan Rothman, a physicist who is a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.  I was expecting something heavily based on model formation, but the course spent more time looking at calculations using the models after their construction.  I very much enjoyed my final project in this course: I am considering writing a paper to submit for publication based on the work, though on looking further into the literature than I had time to do in writing a term paper, I found that previous researchers have done things closer to what I did than I had thought, so it might not be as straightforward as I hoped.

If you've been counting, you'll see that this is where I am now.

7) Qualifying exam part III.  This is an oral exam on my specialty area, condensed matter theory.  Going into the exam, I want to be very comfortable with the solid state physics taught in solids I and II (and the material of statistical mechanics I, but statistical mechanics is very much my home turf so I am only concerned about a little thermodynamics revision, specifically the Maxwell relations).  My classmates and I have been meeting twice a week to discuss the material, and it has been very useful.  I'm no longer scared of the exam: I'm not saying I'd want to take it tomorrow, but I could give it my best shot if I had to.

8) Thesis defence.  This one remains a long way off.  I need to form a thesis committee (that will come straight after I take part III), and before I graduate I'll need to convince them that my thesis is worth a PhD.

9) Thesis.