Lecture

Harmonic Oscillator

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

COM-309: Introduction to quantum information processing

Information is processed in physical devices. In the quantum regime the concept of classical bit is replaced by the quantum bit. We introduce quantum principles, and then quantum communications, key distribution, quantum entropy, and spin dynamics. No prio ...

Description

This lecture covers the concept of the harmonic oscillator, focusing on the electromagnetic field and the collection of harmonic oscillations. It delves into the Hamiltonian, kinetic energy, potential energy, and equations of motion related to the oscillator. The instructor explains the energy function of the classical harmonic oscillator and its various components, such as kinetic and potential energy. The lecture also discusses the Hamiltonian in terms of momentum and central energy, providing insights into the oscillations and excitations of this mode. Additionally, it explores the construction of operators, state vectors, and the application of the Hamiltonian to the system.

Instructor

Nicolas Macris

Nicolas Macris received the PhD degree in theoretical physics from EPFL and then pursued his scientific activity at the mathematics department of Rutgers University (NJ, USA). He then joined the Faculty of Basic Science of EPFL, working in the field of quantum statistical mechanics and mathematical aspects of the quantum Hall effect. Since 2005 he is with the Communication Theories Laboratory and Information Processing group of the School of Communication and Computer Science and currently works at the interface of statistical mechanics, information theory and error correcting codes, inference and learning theory. He held long-term visiting appointments and collaborations with the University College and the Institute of Advanced studies in Dublin, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, the Centre de Physique Theorique Luminy Marseille, Paris XI Orsay, the ETH Zürich and more recently Los Alamos National Lab. CV and publication list.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Mechanics: Classical mechanics

Thermodynamics: Statistical mechanics

Related concepts (32)

Potential energy

In physics, potential energy is the energy held by an object because of its position relative to other objects, stresses within itself, its electric charge, or other factors. The term potential energy was introduced by the 19th-century Scottish engineer and physicist William Rankine, although it has links to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's concept of potentiality. Common types of potential energy include the gravitational potential energy of an object, the elastic potential energy of an extended spring, and the electric potential energy of an electric charge in an electric field.

Equations of motion

In physics, equations of motion are equations that describe the behavior of a physical system in terms of its motion as a function of time. More specifically, the equations of motion describe the behavior of a physical system as a set of mathematical functions in terms of dynamic variables. These variables are usually spatial coordinates and time, but may include momentum components. The most general choice are generalized coordinates which can be any convenient variables characteristic of the physical system.

Electromagnetic field

An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by moving electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical counterpart to the quantized electromagnetic field tensor in quantum electrodynamics (a quantum field theory). The electromagnetic field propagates at the speed of light (in fact, this field can be identified as light) and interacts with charges and currents.

Momentum

In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If m is an object's mass and v is its velocity (also a vector quantity), then the object's momentum p (from Latin pellere "push, drive") is: In the International System of Units (SI), the unit of measurement of momentum is the kilogram metre per second (kg⋅m/s), which is equivalent to the newton-second.

Kinetic energy

In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body when decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest.

Related lectures (64)

Harmonic Oscillator: Algebraic Approach

Explores the classical harmonic oscillator and its algebraic approach to studying the system.

Hamiltonian Mechanics: Phase Space and Poisson Bracket

Explores phase space, the Poisson bracket, and Hamiltonian mechanics concepts.

Hamiltonian Formulation and Equivalence with Euler-Lagrange

Explores Hamiltonian formulation and its equivalence with Euler-Lagrange equations, illustrated through examples.

Conservation Laws: Space Mission Design MOOC: Space Mission Design and Operations

Covers conservation laws in space mission design and spacecraft energy in gravitational fields.

Hamiltonian Mechanics: Diatomic Molecules