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with Professor Frank Wilczek
Lectures
Tuesday/Thursday, 5:00-6:30pm, Room 6C-442
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Today's 8.871 class (Nov. 5) is cancelled, due to Prof. Wilczek's pinched nerve problem. Assuming that that problem eases with rest, as expected, next Tuesday's class (Nov. 10) will meet 4-5:30 PM, so that Professor Wilczek can catch a plane that evening. Please watch the course web page for further announcements (and additional material).
Nov 19: Project 1 posted. There will be an extra class on Monday, November 23 in the usual place at 5 PM.
Nov 17: Near-complete draft of Chapter 9.
Nov 03: Chapter 5 draft now complete; last section will be enhanced in due course.
Oct 28: First draft of Chapter 5; section 4 still to come.
Oct 26: Version of Chapter 4 with body complete, including second Chern class discussion. Also: various typos corrected, other minor additions.
Oct 22: New version of Chapter 4, with major improvements and additions to the differential forms part, and more on characteristic classes. The discussion of the second Chern class is still incomplete (though getting close), but I want to give you a chance to download this material before today's lecture. The complete body of the Chapter should appear tomorrow, and the appendices on Monday. I've also posted a small list of recommended references for differential forms and topology, in the reference material section.
Oct 15: New version of Chapter 4 with the discussion of differential forms augmented and clarified, and now including the section on the first Chern class. This is still seriously incomplete, but I have other urgent work that I need to attend to, so the complete version may not appear until Monday.
Oct 13: New version of Chapter 4,including more mathematical background material. A complete version should appear tomorrow, or Thursday morning.
Oct 05: Old Chapter 3 splits into new 3 and 4. The new Chapter 3 is devoted entirely to spinors. The discussion of $SO(4)\right arrow SU(2)$ has been cleaned up considerably, and there are a few extra comments and many typo corrections. The new Chapter 4 is missing several sections, but what's there has been tightened up and proofread. A minor but annoying typo near the beginning of the supplement to Chapter 2 has been corrected.
Oct 02: Transitional form of Chapter 3. Spinor material is now fairly complete, modulo copy editing. Contains new material on local and global gauge geometry; the latter is especially interesting. I will be re-organizing, correcting, and augmenting this chapter, and probably splitting it into two; a much more polished presentation will appear early next week. Class will not meet October 6 or 8, as I will be out of town.
Sept 30: More extensive but still incomplete version of Chapter 3.
Supplement to Chapter 2 in References & Papers.
Sept 28: Incomplete Chapter 3, containing the main material on spinors.
Sept 25: Near-final version of Chapter 2, with significant additions, and typo corrections
Sept 24: Major revision of Chapter 2, with a complete discussion of level crossings, and some premature $SU(2)$ instanton algebra deleted. Detailed instanton discussion is deferred to Chapter 3.
Sept 23: Major renovation of Chapter 1, which should now be close to final. Interim version of Chapter 2; in particular, the level crossing discussion is still in flux. Reference papers and supplementary papers for Chapter 2.
Sept 22: New version of Chapter 2; still not finalized.
Sept 17: A few more corrections to Chapter 1, none critical. Chapter 2 posted.
Sept 16: New version of Chapter 1 posted on Lecture Notes page, with several typos fixed and point 3 in the monopole discussion now proved with a correct, in place of a bogus, argument.
Sept 09: Physics 8.871 will not meet on Thursday, September 10. I urge people
interested in the course to attend the colloquium by S. C. Zhang, and also his seminar on Friday, September 11 at 12 noon in the Duboc Room,
4-331. The material in these talks is very relevant to the
course, and should be inspiring. Regular classes will begin on
Tuesday, September 15. -- Frank W.
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