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Advanced Computational Methods in Condensed Matter Physics - PHYS 790A - Spring 2026


Class meetings:
Tuesdays, 17:00-19:30 online (zoom), starting 2026-01-13 (contact instructor for link)

Instructor: Professor A. Glatz
Office: 217 La Tourette

Office hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:15-13:15 or by appointment (just send an email).

Grading: Weighted according to 20% lecture attendence, 20% first task, 20% midterm task, and 40% final project.

Midterm exam: week of March 23, 2026.
Final project report: due April 28th, 2026.
(will be assigned in the first half of April.)

Syllabus: PDF



Lectures

date
OverviewPDF2026-01-13
Lecture 1
Floating point arithmetic, Round-off errors, Summation		PDF
+ demo code: geometric series
+ demo code: Kahan summation		January 2026
Lecture 2
Linear systems		PDFJanuary 2026
Lecture 3
numerical integration, root finding		PDF
+ demo code: numerical integration		January 2026
Lecture 4
Explicit and implicit PDE discretization		PDF
+ demo code: numerical differentiation		January 2026
Lecture 5
Data analysis, Random Generators		PDF
+ demo code: ramdom numbers		February 2026
Lecture 6
Introduction to GPGPU computing		PDF
+ demo code: pi MC calculation		February 2026
Lecture 7
Complex Ginzburg-Landau equation Carlo		PDFFebruary 2026




First Project

due: 2026-03-03
project description: PDF
template code: coming soon




Final Projects

TBA
To be presented on April 28th or 30th, 2026 at 17:00 on zoom. Please prepare a 20 minutes presentation explaining the physical model, implementation, and results of the simulations.



Literature suggestions

see syllabus

additional online resources: