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) Geometrical 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
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;
MaxwellBoltzmann 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; Schrodinger equation
and expectation values; Uncertainty principle; Solutions of the
onedimensional Schrodinger equation for free particle (Gaussian
wavepacket), 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.
2. Atomic and Molecular Physics : Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron
spin, fine structure of hydrogen 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 noncentral 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 superconductivity.
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.