Condensed Matter Physics Ii

This course aims to equip you with the advanced concepts and problem solving skills in condensed matter physics. Condensed matter systems can display a very wide variety of phenomena. As a result, condensed matter physics is characterized by a patchwork of effective models and theories that capture the behavior of electronic and lattice systems. While each effective theory provides key insight in a particular setting, together the set of model descriptions --- phenomenology --- form the core structure of the modern day understanding of electrons in solids. This course surveys foundational phenomenology of solid state systems with an emphasis on the origin and basic techniques used to describe how electrons behave in crystals, and material responses to electric and magnetic fields. The course will provide you with an essential conceptual framework to parse fundamental electronic phenomena in crystalline materials, as well as a toolkit of effective models and approximations to perform calculations for materials. In the final part of the course, some current topics will be covered as a natural extension of the more fundamental contents. This will equip you with the necessary background to make a seamless transition to research in Condensed Matter Physics.