Second Semester 2025 Advanced Mathematical Methods 20 Credits
Lectures: (MAM 207) Xday: #:00 – #:00 pm
“………once again we are embarked on a new stage of exploration of fundamental laws of
nature, a voyage guided largely by the search for and the discovery of new symmetries.”
--David Gross
Welcome to AMM2! I am Dr. Shajid Haque. I will be your instructor for this course. I am confident that this
course will prove to be immensely valuable as it lays the groundwork for essential mathematical foundations
applicable across various branches of physics and other disciplines. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity
to explore intriguing new aspects of Mathematical Physics, making this a truly exciting and enriching experience.
The content that we will cover in this course is two-fold. In the first part, we will discuss some advanced
mathematics from a physical perspective. Some of you might have already taken courses in the Mathematics
Department that cover some similar topics. However, unlike the math courses, we will try to motivate ourselves
from a more physical point of view. We will explore why and how certain mathematics are useful for solving
and understanding issues in Physics. Note that these math topics are essential for upper level and postgraduate
level physics. It will cover three fourths of the total contents of the course.
Changing gear a bit, during the second and shorter half of the course, we will talk about some cool topics such
as the role of symmetry in Physics, introduction to blackhole etc. If time permits, we will also cover a little bit
about some cool areas of physics, such as cosmology and quantum complexity.
Contact Information:
Instructor: Dr. Shajid Haque
Office: MAM 3.02
Email: [email protected] (best way to contact me)
Tutorials/Office Hour: Wednesday 12 - 1pm or 3 - 4 pm
Textbooks: There is no set textbook. However, Mathematical Methods for Physicists by G. Arfken, Physical
Mathematics by Kevin Cahill might be useful. I will also use “Geometry, Topology and Physics’ by
Nakahara.
Lecture and attendance: There will be two one-hour (or one two-hour long) lectures per week. I will post
the lecture notes on Amathuba. Attendance is strongly recommended.
Homework: There will be 3 to 4 homework sets during the semester. The homework will be posted on Vula.
Late submission will be accepted with a 10% penalty for each extra day, up until two days after the deadline.
Midterm Exams: There will be one in class midterm exam. It is important that you show all your work on
exam problems so that partial credit can be assigned. The details will be informed later.
Final Exam: The final will be invigilated on campus exam. It will be a comprehensive exam covering all the
material covered in class. The date and time will be informed later.
Make-up Exams: We will follow the guideline provided by the science faculty of UCT.
Grading Distribution:
Homework 30%
Midterm 30%
Final Exam 40%
Academic Honesty: All work submitted for evaluation should be your own and cannot have been submitted
for a different course. You are not allowed to copy any material (homework, formula sheets, lab reports, etc.)
from anyone - your classmates, previous students, online websites or any other sources from outside the
university. If you find a problem has been worked out somewhere – say in another textbook, you may
reproduce the solution provided that the solution is correct and complete (justify), and you provide the
attribution.
There will be a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism, and the policies outlined in the Undergraduate
calendar will be strictly followed. Not knowing or unintentional copying is not an acceptable excuse. If you do
not know, or are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, feel free to ask.
Policies: All electronic devices with the exception of your wrist-watch must be turned off and stowed during
the entire duration of the lecture and lab hours. If you want to take notes on a tablet, please check with me
first.
If you need to have your cell phone on for some reason (such as a sick family member), please let me
know and keep the phone on vibrate.
Academic Honesty: All work submitted for evaluation should be your own, and cannot have been submitted
for a different course. You are not allowed to copy any material (homework, formula sheets, lab reports, etc.)
from anyone - your classmates, previous students, or from outside the university. If you find a problem has
been worked out somewhere – say in another textbook, you may reproduce the solution provided that the
solution is correct and complete (justify), and you provide the attribution.
There will be a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism, and the policies outlined in the Undergraduate calendar
will be strictly followed. Not knowing or unintentional copying is not an acceptable excuse. If you do not
know, or are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, feel free to ask.
Tentative Topics
Coordinate Transformations, Transformation properties of vectors (and
Cartesian tensors)
Lorentz Transformation, 4 vectors, 4 tensors,
Curvilinear coordinates
Vector and Tensor Space,
Vector space in Quantum Mechanics
Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE)
Nature of Solutions, Classification of points
Bessel Function
Different Types, Differential Equation, Generating Function, Asymptotic
behavior
Generalized function, Dirac Delta function and Fourier Transform
Complex Variables
(If time permits)
Symmetry in Physics
Symmetry as the laws of nature, Classification, Noether’s Theorem, Global
vs local symmetries, Symmetry breaking
Short introduction to Blackhole
Causal structure of spacetime, metric, gravitational field as curvature,
Schwarzschild solution
Introduction to Quantum Complexity (If time permits)
Complexity for cosmological perturbations
