Numerical Methods in Physics

Overview

Although we will touch upon theoretical foundations for some of the numerical methods, this course is not meant to replace a formal and rigorous course on numerical methods. Neither it is intended to teach a modern practice in efficient programming. 

Instead it aims at giving a student an overview of the most used numerical tools and the intuition about the power of quantitative computer models. The Numerical Methods in Physics course is offered by the University of Copenhagen.

Skills

After the course the students will be able to program numerical methods for solving Ordinary and Partial differential equations, perform stability analyses of the numerical methods,  program agent based models, cellular automaton and basic algorithms for network analyses.

Knowledge

Learn how a number of numerical tools can be applied to solving a number of interesting , real-world physics problems including Schrodinger equation, Planetary motion, Diffusion equations, Forest fire models, Percolation on networks, Chaotic systems, etc.

Competences

The student will gain some overview of  numerical tools frequently used in modern physics. In addition students will be aware of the potential caveats and will be able to better direct themselves in the extensive literature on numerical and computational techniques.