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The final course evaluation will be on January 15th, at 9am. It would be really great if at least one student (representative) could join me and Larissa -- please let me know if you are interested, and I'll send you the zoom link!
- for the oral exam: https://uio.zoom.us/j/69291323503?pwd=YTBFY3ArTExmSFNKbnZCOXArVGl6Zz09
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for the technical test session: https://uio.zoom.us/j/67438328006?pwd=TTF2TjdDRW5WZGVUc3NOSm1lQzQrZz09
(as described in the email, you will first enter the waiting room. We will let you in as soon as the previous exam is over)
Everyone who has signed up for the final exam should now have received an email with further instructions. If you have not received such an email, but think you should have, please make sure to let me know ASAP!
Also remember the Q&A session on Wednesday! The link is the same as for the lecture discussions.
The student seminar this Wednesday has been cancelled.
I have just uploaded the final lecture set; these will be discussed on Wednesday (Dec 18) at 10am - i.e. before the student seminar by Jake (1pm).
During the week before the exam starts, on Dec 2 at 10am, I offer another (final) Q&A session. So try to use the time for going trough the whole course again, with a focus on the second part, and prepare questions. The better you are prepared, the more you will get out of this session!
Finally, a last reminder for everyone to sign up for the final oral exam by sending me an email. So far, I have only registered 50% of everyone who took part in the midterm.
Taking into account the feedback received so far, the final (!) dates for the final(!) exam will be on Dec 7, 15 and 16.
I extend the the deadline to let me know which of these days you prefer to Monday (16/11). You must let me know by then if you want to take the exam!
With relatively short notice, the institute has transformed any oral exams into digital oral exams. This implies that the technical setup must be tested before (which is one of the reasons for which I need a complete list of students participating in the exam asap). I will get back with more detailed information as the exam approaches.
As announced previously, there will be two student seminars connected to this course:
- Jake Gordin, Vacuum energy and Casimir effect, Nov 18, 1 pm
Quantum fields at finite temperature, Dec 2, 1pm
Both seminars will happen on zoom at this link. I am aware of clashes with other courses, for some of you, but it would still be great if as many of you as possible can attend. Update: the second seminar has been cancelled.
As decided today by the faculty/institute, we are no longer supposed to have any form of teaching with physical presence. Starting from Wednesday, Nov 11, the lecture discussions will thus happen on zoom -- just follow this link.
The final (oral exam) will be on Dec 7, 8 and 9. In order to facilitate planning, please send me an email by next Friday (Nov 13), indicating i) whether you will attend (and hence want a slot reserved) and ii) whether you have a strong preference for any of these days.
If anyone possible - i.e. if there are no corona-related updates - this will be a standard oral exam, with physical presence, for 30-40 minutes.
There has also been some back and forth in the interpretation of whether one formally needs a 'pass' in the midterm exam in order to take part in the final exam. I just learned that this is not the case, as this is not explicitly stated on the course description page. So you can take part in the final exam even with an 'F' in the midterm exam.
will be online:
https://uio.zoom.us/j/66477925635?pwd=c083MGtVWW9UMnBVUnBsSFIzUVlPUT09
It is essential that you read the information about the infection prevention measures which apply in Silurveien before you attend the midterm exam.
For information in English: /english/studies/examinations/silurveien/corona-exams-Atumn20.html
For information in Norwegian: /studier/eksamen/silurveien/korona-eksamen-h20.html
The exam is rapidly approaching, so here are some general considerations to help you with the preparations and to do well:
- start early (= now)!
- go through the whole lecture notes, and prepare questions for the Q&A session next week
- you can bring 2 sheets (=4 sides) of A4 paper with own notes. Prepare them wisely and in time, view this as crucial part of the preparation.
- Look again through the exercises, as well as at exam (or midterm exam) problems from previous years. Make sure to actually sit down and calculate at least some examples to the end, don't just look at the problems (or solutions, where available).
- Discuss with each other, explain each other your understanding ! (As in previous years, you will not only be asked to calculate, but also to explain and interpret results)
- Re-start using PIAZZA
I just put out the lectures for both Monday and Wednesday, to make the organization of the discussion next week a bit more flexible. In particular, these lectures do not really introduce new concepts and are thus in some sense just applications/illustrations of what we have learned so far in the course. The remaining time next week will be used for a general Q&A session, where I will try to address any potential questions (covering the whole course). So please prepare as many questions as you can, this is an excellent preparation for the exam!
[to facilitate that, note that there is now also a combined pdf version of all lectures so far.]
Since there are fewer and fewer people actively participating in the group exercises, let me use the opportunity to stress again that actively solving the problem sets (and presenting/discussing them) is essentially necessary to cope with the midterm exam. You will e.g. need to be both time-efficient in solving problems and be able to explain well, skills that are not trained even when you (exclusively) follow the lecture rather actively.
Note also that the preliminary problems related to correcting your solutions should now be addressed. So if your group hands in a solution by Wednesday 2pm, it will be corrected by Friday that week. I can only encourage everyone to use this opportunity for direct feedback. Discuss amongst yourself when preparing these solutions, and bring remaining questions to the exercise sessions (as well as the lecture discussion sessions)!
This is information for people taking this course as PhD student (I'm currently semi-aware of 3 people), i.e. if you want to register the code FYS9170 rather than FYS4170.
In short, the criterion for pass roughly translates to a letter grade of A or B. In addition, you need to give a seminar (for the whole class) on a topic related to (but extending) the course content. These seminars should take place after the midterm and before the final exam -- please contact me in time to discuss potential topics and time slots!
I was just informed that the Hogwarts School of Physics happens to have an online discussion forum about the same course content as ours. ;) [Thanks to the person leaking that information!!!] So I suggest to follow the above sign-up link for anyone wishing to follow qft-related discussions this term (beyond those taking place during the ordinary discussion sessions).
(Note that you can simply create an email address just for this very purpose, if you don't want to use your standard address for this. BTW: The secret source also leaked that the password is the same as the name of our course...)
You should now have received an email that places you in one of three groups -- if not, please contact me!
Each group hands in their solution of the weekly exercise by Wednesday 3pm, and presents/discusses it on the subsequent Friday.
The first set of problems will be made available this Wednesday (19/08), for discussion next week (28/08). This week, the discussion on Friday will focus on the 'preliminaries' notes, e.g. by going through the initial exercises (i.e. no hand-in this week).
[In order to help you get started with compiling your answers in LaTeX -- which is encouraged, but not required -- here is the .tex file for this initial exercise sheet, whic...
A tentative plan for this first course in relativistic quantum field theory (FYS4170) can now be found on the semester pages of the course, including reading suggestions.
Most importantly: please take ASAP a close look at what you should remember from previous courses! From experience, this is essentially mandatory if you want to avoid a rather tough start...
Welcome, and looking forward to seeing you on Monday, August 17!
Torsten Bringmann