BSc Physics with Theoretical Physics

Physics and Reality

While physics was originally an attempt to understand the "nature of things”, modern physics is dominated by a focus on making quantitative predictions, often with theories whose wider implications about the real world are obscure. As pointed out by Schrödinger, quantum mechanics appears inconsistent with our everyday world in which things are either here or there, but not in superposition states (cats are either dead or alive, but not both at once). Similar questions on the philosophical interpretation of physical theories arise for example in cosmology and thermodynamics. In this course we will explore a range of issues relating to the connection of theories in physics with the reality we experience as humans.

Topics:

The course consists of three topics, each taught over a four week period, where each week consists of a lecture followed by a seminar. The topics discussed will be chosen by the lecturers at the beginning of the course. They will normally include some subjects from the foundations of quantum mechanics and cosmology. Other topics discussed in the past include relativity, the second law of thermodynamics and the arrow of time, complexity and information, concepts of time, theories of everything, and the purposes of mathematical and computational modelling of natural phenomena.

Delivery method:

In addition to lectures or online videos, there will be weekly seminars with three short student talks (apart from in the first week). Students will be assigned a topic to speak on, and will be expected to answer questions from the audience. Students will be asked to write an essay. The essay will be set a deadline early in week 11, and will be assigned based on preferences from a set of titles covering the first two topics taught (these topics may change from year to year). Students will normally be asked to answer questions in the exam on topics they have not written their essay on.

Feedback will be provided through the seminars, on student presentations, on a practice essay, and on the assessed essay. 

There is no single text for this course, nevertheless it is essential that students read extensively. During the course students will be issued with study packs containing a number of key passages (e.g. chapters of books) for each topic. The lectures will develop the ideas discussed in these texts, which students are expected to read before the lectures and seminars. Students who extend their reading around the essential passages will improve their chances of doing well in the assessment.