The introductory meeting for this class is on Monday March 24, at 15:15. It will be sent live via Adobe Connect on connect.sunet.se/lnu-2fy808

We have working setups for the following experiments:

• Electron Spin Resonance
• Zeeman effect
• One- and two-electron atomic spectra
• X-ray fluorescence
• Rutherford scattering and alpha spectroscopy
• Neutron activation
• Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

This is a diverse collection of subjects and equipment. If there is some unity behind all this, the common denominator would be that this is about spectroscopy, and the response of a system to excitation. From this we can learn something about the internal structure of atomic and subatomic particles.

Spectroscopy is not limited to quantum mechanics. We are doing spectroscopy continually with our ears. The cochlea is a Fourier analyzer, its output is a spectrogram that the brain uses to characterize the source of the sound. As an introductory lab, we will study the acoustic spectra of vibrating plates.

The main theoretical content that I want students to master in this course is the concept of spin and the coupling of angular momenta in quantum mechanics. Understanding of this theme is a prerequisite for more advanced courses in quantum mechanics and in magnetism.

There will be no final theoretical exam. Examination in this course is done by written assignments, lab reports, oral presentations, and seminars. There are also no fixed study assignments, nor lists of homework exercises in textbooks. I want this to be a curiosity-driven learning experience. There will be quite a lot of freedom, also in the choice of subjects to write about, and possibly in the experiments to be performed. The schedule is flexible, and I will try to accommodate distance students as much as possible. But experience has taught me that it will be necessary to have deadlines.

One new thing that I want to explore and develop in this course is using the sound input of ordinary computers for analyzing spectra of gamma-ray detectors. We bought some equipment for that (gammaspectacular.com), but it is up to the participants in this course to evaluate its performance. Other suggestions are to study quantized conduction in gold contacts, or quantum optics by photon counting, or using the sensor of a digital camera for detecting alpha particles.

This year I want people to do work on building a remotely controlled lab experiment for home exercises in the first-year course in atomic and nuclear physics. I have made a prototype setup for beta spectroscopy. We also need setups for measuring gamma counts as function of distance and/or the thickness of shielding. Or decay as a function of time. We could do something with alpha spectroscopy in air. This will involve tinkering with hardware, programming Arduinos, making pedagogical web pages that explain statistics and all that.

Also something new: we will get on loan the ethernet-controlled gammaspectrometer Osprey. If all goes as I expect, students will be able to use the program Prospect from home to take and analyze data. We will explore this thing, and our experiences will decide on whether we will buy this instrument.

I synchronized this site with Ladok, but not all students seem to be enrolled.