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PHYSICS

PAPER-I

1. (a) Mechanics of Particles :

Laws of motion; conservation of energy and momentum, applications to rotating frames, centripetal
and Coriolis accelerations; Motion under a central force; Conservation of angular momentum, Kepler’s laws;
Fields and potentials; Gravitational field and potential due to spherical bodies, Gauss and Poisson
equations, gravitational self-energy; Two-body problem; Reduced mass; Rutherford scattering; Centre of
mass and laboratory reference frames.

(b) Mechanics of Rigid Bodies :

System of particles; Centre of mass, angular momentum, equations of motion; Conservation theorems
for energy, momentum and angular momentum; Elastic and inelastic collisions; Rigid Body; Degrees of
freedom, Euler’s theorem, angular velocity, angular momentum, moments of inertia, theorems of parallel
and perpendicular axes, equation of motion for rotation; Molecular rotations (as rigid bodies); Di and tri-
atomic molecules; Precessional motion; top, gyroscope.

(c) Mechanics of Continuous Media :

Elasticity, Hooke’s law and elastic constants of isotropic solids and their inter-relation; Streamline
(Laminar) flow, viscosity, Poiseuille’s equation, Bernoulli’s equation, Stokes’ law and applications.

(d) Special Relativity :

Michelson-Morely experiment and its implications; Lorentz transformations length contraction, time
dilation, addition of relativistic velocities, aberration and Doppler effect, mass-energy relation, simple
applications to a decay process. Four dimensional momentum vector; Covariance of equations of physics.

2. Waves and Optics :

(a) Waves :

Simple harmonic motion, damped oscillation, forced oscillation and resonance; Beats; Stationary
waves in a string; Pulses and wave packets; Phase and group velocities; Reflection and refraction from
Huygens’ principle.

(b) Geometrial Optics :

Laws of reflection and refraction from Fermat’s principle; Matrix method in paraxial optic-thin lens
formula, nodal planes, system of two thin lenses, chromatic and spherical aberrations.

(c) Interference :

Interference of light -Young’s experiment, Newton’s rings, interference by thin films, Michelson
interferometer; Multiple beam interference and Fabry Perot interferometer.

(d) Diffraction :

Fraunhofer diffraction - single slit, double slit, diffraction grating, resolving power; Diffraction by a
circular aperture and the Airy pattern; Fresnel diffraction: half-period zones and zone plates, circular
aperture.

(e) Polarisation and Modern Optics :

Production and detection of linearly and circularly polarized light; Double refraction, quarter wave

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plate; Optical activity; Principles of fibre optics, attenuation; Pulse dispersion in step index and parabolic
index fibres; Material dispersion, single mode fibers; Lasers-Einstein A and B coefficients. Ruby and He-Ne
lasers. Characteristics of laser light-spatial and temporal coherence; Focusing of laser beams. Three-level
scheme for laser operation; Holography and simple applications.

3. Electricity and Magnetism :

(a) Electrostatics and Magnetostatics :

Laplace and Poisson equations in electrostatics and their applications; Energy of a system of charges,
multipole expansion of scalar potential; Method of images and its applications. Potential and field due to a
dipole, force and torque on a dipole in an external field; Dielectrics, polarisation. Solutions to boundary-
value problems-conducting and dielectric spheres in a uniform electric field; Magnetic shell, uniformly
magnetised sphere; Ferromagnetic materials, hysteresis, energy loss.

(b) Current Electricity :

Kirchhoff's laws and their applications. Biot-Savart law, Ampere’s law, Faraday’s law, Lenz’ law. Self-
and mutual- inductances; Mean and rms values in AC circuits; DC and AC circuits with R, L and C
components; Series and parallel resonance; Quality factor; Principle of transformer.

4. Electromagnetic Waves and Blackbody Radiation :

Displacement current and Maxwell’s equations; Wave equations in vacuum, Poynting theorem; Vector
and scalar potentials; Electromagnetic field tensor, covariance of Maxwell’s equations; Wave equations in
isotropic dielectrics, reflection and refraction at the boundary of two dielectrics; Fresnel’s relations; Total
internal reflection; Normal and anomalous dispersion; Rayleigh scattering; Blackbody radiation and
Planck ’s radiation law- Stefan-Boltzmann law, Wien’s displacement law and Rayleigh-Jeans law.

5. Thermal and Statistical Physics :

(a) Thermodynamics :

Laws of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, entropy; Isothermal, adiabatic,

isobaric, isochoric processes and entropy changes; Otto and Diesel engines, Gibbs’ phase rule and chemical
potential; Van der Waals equation of state of a real gas, critical constants; Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
of molecular velocities, transport phenomena, equipartition and virial theorems; Dulong-Petit, Einstein, and
Debye’s theories of specific heat of solids; Maxwell relations and application; Clausius-Clapeyron equation.
Adiabatic demagnetisation, Joule-Kelvin effect and liquefaction of gases.

(b) Statistical Physics :

Macro and micro states, statistical distributions, Maxwell-Boltzmann, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac
Distributions, applications to specific heat of gases and blackbody radiation; Concept of negative
temperatures.

PAPER-II

1. Quantum Mechanics :

Wave-particle duality; Schroedinger equation and expectation values; Uncertainty principle; Solutions of
the one-dimensional Schroedinger equation for free particle (Gaussian wave-packet), particle in a box,
particle in a finite well, linear harmonic oscillator; Reflection and transmission by a step potential and by a
rectangular barrier; Particle in a three dimensional box, density of states, free electron theory of metals;
Angular momentum; Hydrogen atom; Spin half particles, properties of Pauli spin matrices.

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2. Atomic and Molecular Physics :

Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron spin, fine structure of hydrozen atom; L-S coupling, J-J coupling;
Spectroscopic notation of atomic states; Zeeman effect; Franck-Condon principle and applications;
Elementary theory of rotational, vibrational and electronic spectra of diatomic molecules; Raman effect and
molecular structure; Laser Raman spectroscopy; Importance of neutral hydrogen atom, molecular hydrogen
and molecular hydrogen ion in astronomy. Fluorescence and Phosphorescence; Elementary theory and
applications of NMR and EPR; Elementary ideas about Lamb shift and its significance.

3. Nuclear and Particle Physics :

Basic nuclear properties-size, binding energy, angular momentum, parity, magnetic moment; Semi-
empirical mass formula and applications. Mass parabolas; Ground state of a deuteron, magnetic moment
and non-central forces; Meson theory of nuclear forces; Salient features of nuclear forces; Shell model of
the nucleus - success and limitations; Violation of parity in beta decay; Gamma decay and internal
conversion; Elementary ideas about Mossbauer spectroscopy; Q-value of nuclear reactions; Nuclear fission
and fusion, energy production in stars. Nuclear reactors.

Classification of elementary particles and their interactions; Conservation laws; Quark structure of
hadrons : Field quanta of electroweak and strong interactions; Elementary ideas about unification of forces;
Physics of neutrinos.

4. Solid State Physics, Devices and Electronics :

Crystalline and amorphous structure of matter; Different crystal systems, space groups; Methods of
determination of crystal structure; X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies;
Band theory of solids—conductors, insulators and semi-conductors; Thermal properties of solids, specific
heat, Debye theory; Magnetism: dia, para and ferromagnetism; Elements of super-conductivity, Meissner
effect, Josephson junctions and applications; Elementary ideas about high temperature super-conductivity.

Intrinsic and extrinsic semi-conductors- p-n-p and n-p-n transistors; Amplifiers and oscillators. Op-amps;
FET, JFET and MOSFET; Digital electronics-Boolean identities, De Morgan’s laws, Logic gates and truth
tables. Simple logic circuits; Thermistors, solar cells; Fundamentals of microprocessors and digital
computers.

POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

PAPER- I

Political Theory and Indian Politics :

1. Political Theory: meaning and approaches.

2. Theories of state : Liberal, Neo-liberal, Marxist, Pluiralist, post-colonial and Feminist.

3. Justice : Conceptions of justice with special reference to Rawl’s theory of justice and its communitarian
critiques.

4. Equality : Social, political and economic; relationship between equality and freedom; Affirmative action.

5. Rights : Meaning and theories; different kinds of rights; Concept of Human Rights.

6. Democracy : Classical and contemporary theories; different models of democracy—representative,

participatory and deliberative.

7. Concept of power : hegemony, ideology and legitimacy.

8. Political Ideologies : Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Gandhism and Feminism.

Government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply.