Time: TR 10:30-11:50
Place: 130 Phy/Geo

Instructor: Professor Ling-Lie Chau. For a brief introduction about Chau and for ways of contacting her, see http://www.physics.ucdavis.edu/text/chau.html.

Chau will use her textbook material "Mathematics for the Physical Sciences", to be published by University Science Books. Copies of the material will be available for purchase at Off Campus Books soon, at production cost. (Precise date will be announced.) It had been used for the previous Physics 104A,B (equivalent to the current Physics 104A,C) with good results. It has been used for Physics 204A,B at UC Davis and for Physics 170A at CSU Fresno.

We will first give a unifying view about vector spaces and show that, through the spectral representations developed by Chau, solving matrix linear equations and solving differential equations (ordinary and partial) and integral equations can be put on a common footing. This is a very important modern concept and method that students in physics and applied mathematics should not miss. We will then learn the wonders of functions of one complex variable and how it can be used to calculate integrals, solve differential equations and do integral transforms. (Besides these practical uses, the importance of the subject goes much deeper. It is used in the development of string theory, the so called Theory of Everything.) If there is time, we will learn the profound variational methods and its many interesting and important applications. After this course, students will become more advanced analytic and creative thinkers, which will be useful for all future scientific careers.