Computational Physics

Semester 2011A

Course Outline:

	Topics
	Introduction & course overview
	The recommended computing environment and basic programming
	Numerical precision and basic numerical analysis (approximation of a function)
	Numerical Differentiation, High-Throughput Computing - Condor
	Numerical integration, High-Performance Computing
	Linear Algebra, Parallel Computing Random numbers and Monte Carlo methods
	Diffusion equation and random walks, Parallel Computation of a steady state heat equation
	Metropolis algorithm and studies of phase transitions
	Ordinary differential equations
	Partial differential equations
	Wave equation in one and two dimensions
	Students Projects presentations

Detailed Schedule:

Meeting	Date	Topic	Lecture Material	Reading Material (read before class!)	Complementary Material
	10/10/2010	Beginning of the new Academic Year		M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 1 (pdf)
1	14/10/10	Lecture 1: Introduction - Course Overview and requirements C/C++ and Representation of Numbers. Euler approximation: Case study #1: Radioavtive decay (Giordano&Nakanishi) Mini course: Introduction to Condor (part1)	Introduction ( part 1, part 2 )	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 2 (pdf) - Introduction to C++ and Fortran	Giordano&Nakanishi Appendix A Introduction to Fortran90
2	21/10/10	Numerical Differentiation Mini course: Introduction to Condor - part 2: High-Throughput Computing with Condor Mini Course: Introduction to root	Administration Numerical Differentiation Condor user tutorial (Condor Week 2010)	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 3 (pdf) - Numerical Differentiation
3	28/10/10	Numerical Integration Introduction to High-Performance Computing Home assignment #1	Administration Numerical Integration Introduction to HPC	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 7 (pdf) - Numerical Integration	Giordano&Nakanishi Appendix E Books about Parallel Computing
4	4/11/10	Linear Algebra Mini course: Parallel Computing with MPI Mini Course: How to build a Beowulf - Building a computing cluster demo	Administration Linear Algebra MPI Tutorial DeinoMPI Parallel Cluster using BCCD	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 4 (pdf) - Linear Algebra	Giordano&Nakanishi Appendix H Linear Algebra - MIT Open Courseware - Prof. Gilbert Strang 18.085 Computational Science and Engineering I - MIT Open Courseware - Prof. Gilbert Strang
5	11/11/10	Differential Equations Mini Course: Scilab Mini Course: Parallel Computing with OpenMP Mini Course: FlexPDE and/or Comsol Multi Physics	Administration Differential Equations Scilab OpenMP tutorial FlexPDE	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 13 (pdf) - Differential Equations	Giordano&Nakanishi Appendix A OpenMP quick reference card
6	18/11/10	No Class this week
7	25/11/10	Monte Carlo Computations Mini Course: Introduction to "R" and Elastic-R demo for Cloud Computing Home assignment #2 Deadline: Finalizing the Final Projects' topics	Administration Monte Carlo Computations Supercomputing 2010 and the latest Top500 list R- tutorial More MPI: Synchronous Computations from: ITCS 4/5145 Parallel computing, UNC-Charlotte, B. Wilkinson, 2009.	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 8 (pdf) - Outline of the Monte Carlo strategy	Giordano&Nakanishi Appendix F
8	2/12/10	Random walk and the Metropolis Algorithm Mini Course: Visualization with VisIt	Administration Random Walk and the Metropolis Algorithm VisIt tutorial SC10 Tutorial	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 9 (pdf) - Random Walk and the Metropolis Algorithm	The Top 10 Algorithms
9	9/12/10	Monte Carlo Methods in Statistical Physics An Example from New Kind of Science (NKS): Running a python program using Condor on a HPC server on Amazon"s cloud (EC2) to compute 256 rules. Home assignment #3	Administration Monte Carlo Methods in Statistical Physics DLA Silo example program wave.c	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 10 (pdf) - Monte Carlo Methods in Statistical Physics
10	16/12/10	Quantum Monte-Carlo Methods Mini-Course: GPGPU+Matlab, (gp-you) - Benchmark CPU/GPU speed-up. The Israeli Association of Cloud Computing (IGT)	Administration Quantum Monte-Carlo Methods Monte Carlo Simulations video lecture by Prof. R. Landau's Stephen Wolfram: Computing a theory of everything (TED)	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 11 (pdf) - Quantum Monte-Carlo Methods
11		Partial Differential Equations Mini Course: Introduction to Geant4 Mini Course JAS Mini Course: Kepler Workflow Manager	Administration PDE (Presentation not available online) Introduction to Geant4 JAS Kepler Workflow Manager	M. Hjorth-Jensen, Ch. 15 (pdf) - Partial Differential Equations
12	30/12/10	Students Presentations 1	המרצים בוריס שיף שימי מכלוף דניאל אריעד תמיד גרוסינגר דרור משה אהרוני	תלמידים ששמם אינו מצויין בעמודה משמאל בשביל שבוע 12 או 13, מתבקשים ליצור בדחיפות קשר עם המרצה
13	2/1/11	Students Presentations 2 Course closure - Concluding remarks	המרצים אלון גת אמיר פרוכטמן ירון דה ליאו דביר פלום	השיעור יתקיים בבניין 90 חדר 141
*	7/1/11	End of semester
*	21/1/11	Deadline: Submission of Final Projects
*	TBA	Last day to deliver final grades to the secretariat

* Tentative! Subject to changes!!!
Last update: 30/10/2010