Syllabus for
Master of Philosophy (Physics)
Academic Year  (2018)

This course is intended to assist students in planning and carrying out research projects.  The students are exposed to the principles, procedures and techniques of implementing a research project.

• foster a clear understanding about research design that enables students in analyzing and evaluating the published research.
• acquire sound knowledge in theoretical and quantitative methods.
• analyze and interpret data for evaluating alternative perspectives.
• understand the components and techniques of effective report writing.
• obtain necessary skills in preparing scientific documents using LaTeX..
• employ computers in managing and planning research activities effectively.

An introduction–meaning of research-objectives of research- motivation in research –types of research- research approaches-significance of research-research methods versus methodology-research and scientific method-importance of knowing how research done-research processes-criteria of good research-defining research problem-selecting the problem-necessity of defining the problem-technique involved in defining a problem-Research design- meaning of research design-need for research design-features of good design-different research design-basic principles of experimental design

Measurement and Scaling Techniques- Methods of Data Collection, - processing and Analysis of Data,- Sampling Fundamentals, Testing of Hypotheses - I (Parametric or Standard Tests of Hypotheses), Chi-square Test, Analysis of Variance and Covariance, Testing of Hypotheses - II (Nonparametric or Distribution - Free Test),Multivariate Analysis Techniques.

Interpretation and report writing, technique of report writing-precaution in interpretation-significance- different steps of report writing- layout of research report-oral presentation- mechanics of writing- Exposure to writing tools like Latex/PDF, Camera Ready Preparation

Originality in research, resources for research, Research skills, Time management, Role of supervisor and Scholar, Interaction with subject expert,  The Computer: Its Role in Research, Case study interpretation: minimum 5 case studies.

1. C.R.Kothari, Research Methodology- Methods and Techniques, 2nd ed., Vishwa Prakashan Publications, New Delhi, 2006.

2. R. Pannerselvam, Research methodology, 3rd Printing, New Delhi, PHI 2006.

3. Santosh Gupta,  Methodology And Statistical Techniques, 1st ed., Deep and Deep Publications, 2004.

4. E. B. Wilson Jr., An Introduction to scientific research, 1st ed., (Reprint), New York: Dover publications Inc, 2000.

5. Ram Ahuja, Research Methods, 1st ed., New Delh: Rawat Publications, 2002.

6. Gopal Lal Jain, Research Methodology, 2nd ed., Jaipur: Mangal Deep Publications, 2003.

7. B. C. Nakra and K. K. Chaudhry: Instrumentation, measurement and analysis,2nd ed., New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2004.

8. S. L. Mayers,  Data analysis for Scientists, Reprint,John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

9. L. Blaxter, C. Hughes, M. Tight, How to research, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2010.

10. J. Bell, Doing your research project, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2010.

11. A. Thomas, J. Chataway, M. Wuyts, Finding our fast-Investigative Skills for Policy and Development, Reprint, SAGE Publications Inc., 2000.

12. P.J.M. Costello,  Effective Action Research: Developing Reflective Thinking and Practice, 2nd ed., Continuum, 2005 (NIAS)

13. B. Gilham, Case study research methods,1st ed.,Continuum,  2011.

14. S. Kleinman, M.A.Copp, Emotions and fieldwork, Reprint, SAGE Publications Inc., 2000.

15. I. Gregory, Ethics in research, Continuum, 2005 (NIAS)

16. J. Bennet, Evaluation methods in research, Continuum, 2005 (NIAS)

17. D. L. Morgan, Focus groups as qualitative research, Reprint, Sage Pub., 2000 (NIAS)

18. Illingham,Jo., Giving presentations, OUP, 2003 (NIAS)

19. M. Denscombe, The good research guide, Reprint, Viva, 2000 (NIAS)

20. D. Ezzy, Qualitative analysis, Routledge, 2002 (NIAS)

21. M. Q. Patton, Qualitative evaluation and research methods, Reprint, Sage Pub, 2000 (NIAS)

22. J. Kirk, Reliability and validity in qualitative research, Rerpint, Sage Pub, 2000 (NIAS)

This course on Measurement techniques in Physics is to familiarize the students to the various measurement techniques which are useful in all branches in Physics. The course includes topics on Vacuum techniques,  cryogenic techniques, film thickness measurement techniques and data acquisition systems.

The fundamental nature of gases and gas flow, vapour pressure, the concept of conductance in a vacuum system, Conductance effect on pump speed, Combined conductance, Aperture conductance, mean free path, Degrees of vacuum. Operational principles various mechanical pumps as well as limitations: Turbo molecular Pumps- Design parameters, Matching forepumps, Compression ratio considerations, System operation, Molecular Drag principle; Operating principle of Diffusion Pumps - Critical forepressure and inlet pressure, Limitations to base pressure, Backstreaming and Backmigration, Use of baffles and traps, Fluids, Matching backing pump, Small system operation; Operating principle of Cryopumps& ion pumps, Cryogenic processes, Pump configuration, Cryopump system operation.

Pressure measurement gauges, Thermal Conductivity gauges-Pirani gauge, Thermistor gauge, Thermocouple gauge, Calibration of thermal gauges. Ionization gauges, Principle of ionization, Discharge tube, Hot filament gauge, Cold cathode Penning gauge, Range, limitations and features of Penning gauge. Leak detection and Residual Gas Analyzers, design and operation of a practical vacuum system, construction of vacuum systems including materials and couplings, identify sources of contamination and leaks in a typical vacuum system.

Liquefaction of gases, Applications of cryogenics, Production of low temperatures- Cryocoolers, Special properties of liquid helium, superfluidity, Production of temperatures upto 4K and below 1K, Magnetic refrigeration, Dilution refrigerator, Pomeranchuck cooling, Measurement of low temperatures, Primary and secondary thermometers, Thermocouples, Cryostats, Basics of superconductivity, and superconducting magnets, cryogenic safety.

Thin film techniques-Film thickness monitors, Film thickness measurement techniques.

Transducers, Transducer characteristics, Detectors- Construction & working of proprtional counter and charge coupled device (CCD), Free amplifiers-voltage sensitive, charge sensitive, Spectroscopic amplifiers, Analog signal processing, Analog to digital conversion, Digital to analog conversion. Data acquisition systems, Instrumentation systems, Sample and hold circuit, configuration of data acquisition system, objective of data acquisition system, single channel Analysers- Anticoincidence & Coincidence circuits, multi-channel data acquisition systems, applications.

[1].        P A Redhead, J P Hobson and E V Kornelsen: The Physical Basis of Ultra High Vacuum, AIP, New York 1997.

[2].       B D Das: An Introduction to the Thin Film State: Preparation, Structure and Basic Characteristic of Thin Film, Aparna Publication, Ashoka Road, Mysore 1992.

[3].        K D Timmerhaus and T M Flynn: Cryogenic Process Engineering, Plenum Press, New York 1989.

[4].        J B Gupta: A Course in Electronics and Electrical Measurements and Instrumentation, 13th Edn., S. K. Kataria& Sons, Delhi 2008.

[1].   J M Lafferty: Foundations of Vacuum Science and Technology, Wiley Interscience New York, 1998.

[2].    P J Messon: Experimental Techniques in Low Temperature Physics, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002.

[3]    K L Chopra and R E Krigger: Thin Film Phenomena, Publishing company, Huntington, New York 1979.   F Pobell: Matter and Methods at Low Temperatures, Springer–Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1992.

[4].  D Patranibis: Principles of Industrial Instrumentation, TMH publishing Co. Ltd. 1994.

[5].   C S Rangan, G. R. Sharma and V. S. V. Mani: Instrumentation Devices and Systems, 2nd Edn., Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 1997.

This course is intended to make the students learn the fundamentals of observational Astronomy and Asrophysics.  They will be learning about the evolution of low mass and high mass stars. The course will also introduce them to the various data analysis techiques in Astrophysics. 

Students will be familiar with data reduction techniques for photometry and spectroscopy.

Magnitudes, colors of stars, Different photometric systems, Planning observations, methods of

estimating distance, luminosity, mass and age of stars, Spectral sequence, Hertzsprung-Russell

Diagram, Phases of star formation, time scales involved in star formation, Telescopes and

detectors at different wavelengths, imaging, spectroscopy, resolving power, Spectroscopy:

Fundamentals, line formation, emission and absorption lines, Interstellar extinction

Evolution of a low mass star: Main sequence, Red giant, AGB phase, planetary nebulae, white

dwarf, Phases in massive star evolution: Red-supergiants, Blue supergiants, Wolf-Rayet, Neutron

stars/black holes, Role of metallicity in stellar evolution, Stellar winds, evolutionary tracks,

isochrones.

Star clusters – open clusters, globular clusters, associations, Distance and age estimation, Optical

color-magnitude diagram (CMD), Discussion on the location of evolved stars in CMD, Nearinfrared

color-color diagram, IR excess, Spectroscopy of evolved stars, Ratio of blue to red

supergiants in open clusters, Data reduction techniques for photometry and Spectroscopy,

familiarity with IRAF and Python softwares, Spectral energy distribution analysis, Analysis of

space-based data, dealing with data archives

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2. Levesque et al. 2005, 628, 973

3. Caron et al. 2003, AJ, 126, 1415

4. Groh et al. 2014, A&A, 564, A30

Wesley, 2007

2. S. W. Stahler and F. Palla: The formation of stars, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

3. Iben I. Jr. 1967, ARAA, 5, 571

4. Langer, N. and Maeder, A. 1995, A&A, 295, 685

5. T. Kogure & K-C. Leung: The Astrophysics of emission-line stars, Springer, 2010

The field of astrophysics is driven by observations and deals with large volumes of data. This course is intended to give the student a basic understanding of  the fundamentals in  astrophysics and the software tools used for data analysis. 

Observational astronomy: Coordinate systems, Magnitudes, colors, extinction, Stellar parameters: methods of estimating distance, luminosity, mass and age of stars, Spectral types and Surface Temperatures, Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Detectors: sensitivity, noise, quantum efficiency, signal to noise ratio, background, detectors at different wavelengths, Telescopes: aberrations, telescopes at different wavelengths; Photometry: bandpass systems, imaging, calibration, adaptive optics, Spectroscopy: basic design of a spectrograph, resolving power, radiation transfer, line formation;  Summary of ongoing and future missions/surveys 

Phases of star formation: Protostars, pre-main sequence stars, main sequence; Mass – luminosity relation, Evolutionary tracks, Isochrones, Properties and classification of pre-main sequence stars, Identification of young stars from color - magnitude and color - color diagrams, Infrared excess, Spectral energy distribution,  Spectroscopic features of Young Stars, Age estimation of young stars

Bound system of stars – Stellar clusters, associations, moving groups, stellar interactions, Nearby moving groups, Properties of members belonging to a moving group, Vector point diagram, Convergence analysis, Estimation of space velocity, Membership probability: Banyan software, Data analysis programs: IRAF, Python, Spectral energy distribution analysis, Analysis of space-based data, dealing with data archives

2.     S. W. Stahler and F. Palla: The formation of stars, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

3.     Zuckerman, B. and Song, I., Young Stars Near the Sun, 2004, ARA&A, 42, 685

2.     Torres et al. 2006, A&A, 460, 695

3.  Torres 2008, Handbook of Star Forming Regions, Volume II: The Southern Sky ASP Monograph Publications, Vol. 5. Edited by Bo Reipurth, 757

4.     Elliott et al. 2016, A&A, 590, 13

5.     Faherty et al. 2018, 2018, ApJ, 863, 91

6.     Johnson D. R. H., and Soderblom, D. R.1987, AJ, 93, 4