ECTS credits ECTS credits: 4.5
ECTS Hours Rules/Memories Student's work ECTS: 74.25 Hours of tutorials: 2.25 Expository Class: 18 Interactive Classroom: 18 Total: 112.5
Use languages Spanish, Galician
Type: Ordinary Degree Subject RD 1393/2007 - 822/2021
Departments: Particle Physics
Areas: Condensed Matter Physics
Center Faculty of Physics
Call: First Semester
Teaching: With teaching
Enrolment: Enrollable
Complex Systems in Physics are characterized by a rich behavior emerging from the interactions among multiple components. They require specific conceptual tools for their study. These systems appear in many areas of basic and applied science, from the decoding of human genome to the analysis of industrial processes and the design and manufacturing of new materials.
These systems have in common a high degree of complexity and the need for specific statistical and dynamic tools for their study. The objective of this course is to familiarize students with these systems, the associated basic tools for their modeling and analysis and with their technologic and scientific applications.
This course has a large experimental and numerical component, mostly dependent on student motivation. From each proposed topic, a set of basic concepts will be discussed in class, and then the student can further develop the subject with experimental work or computer modeling whenever possible. These experimental and numerical abilities will be very useful in addressing further topics in physical sciences.
LEARNING OUTCOME
Upon course completion, students will:
- acquire the knowledge to understand the various complex systems, the basic tools for their modeling and analysis, and their scientific and technical applications.
- acquire experimental and computational skills that allow them to address problems associated with complexity from very different perspectives.
1 – Introduction: Complex Systems.
2. Example Complex System: Earth’s Atmosphere
2.1. Atmospheric dynamics: Basic equations of conservation and applications.
2.2. Atmospheric stability.
2.3. Circulation and vorticity.
2.4.Atmospheric oscillations. Gravity waves. Rossby waves.
2.5. Planetary Boundary Layer. Turbulence.
2.6. Structure of the general circulation of the atmosphere.
3. Other complex systems (topics for course projects).
3.1 Statistical mechanics of real systems. Statistics of stable processes. Stochastic processes. Complex networks.
3.2 – Properties of equilibrium and transport phenomena in complex liquids.
3.3 – Experiments and analysis of critical phenomena close to a phase transition (electric conductivity, magnetization, etc).
3.4 – Percolation. Conduction in granular media.
3.5 – Self organized criticalilty.
3.6 Chaos and fractality. The Lorenz equation. Logistic maps. Paths to chaos. Sincronization. Fractal dimensions. DLA models.
3.7 –Biologic structures. Biologic waves, excitable, oscillant media. Cardiological models, propagation or neurological pulses, etc. Turing structures. Morphogenesis models.
3.8 – Instabilities in fluids. Waves. Rayleigh-Taylor, Kelvin-Helmholtz, Rayleigh-Benard, Faraday, etc.
3.9 – Modeling of financial markets with complex networks.
3.10- Epidemiologic models. Complex network models. The Fisher and Lotka–Volterra equations.
3.11. Other topics can be considered at student request, whenever related to the course’s contents.
S.H. Strogatz “Nonlinear dynamics and chaos” Adison Wesley (1994).
R.V. Solé, S.C. Manrubia “Orden y caos en sistemas complejos” Ediciones UOC (1997).
R. Kapral and K. Showalter Eds. “Chemical waves and patterns” Kluwer Academic Publishers (Dordrecht) (1995).
J.D. Murray “Mathematical Biology” Springer (1989).
A. Bunde, S. Haulin Eds. “Fractals and disordered systems” Springer (1996).
V.I. Krinsky Ed. “Selforganization: autowaves and structures far from equilibrium” Springer (1984).
B.B. Mandelbrot “The fractal geometry of Nature” Freeman (1983).
J.R. Holton. An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology. Acad. Press (1992).
J. M. Wallace and P. V. Hobbs, Atmospheric Science: an introductory survey - 2nd edition, Elsevier (2006)
I. Sendiña Nadal y V. Pérez Muñuzuri, Fundamentos de Meteorología, USC Publicacións (2006)
BASIC AND GENERAL
CB1 - That students have demonstrated to possess and understand knowledge in an area of study that starts from the base of general secondary education, and is usually found at a level that, although supported by advanced textbooks, also includes some aspects that imply knowledge coming from the vanguard of their field of study.
CB2 - That students know how to apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and possess the skills that are usually demonstrated through the elaboration and defense of arguments and the resolution of problems within their area of study.
CB3 - That students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their area of study) to issue judgments that include a reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues.
CG1 - Possess and understand the most important concepts, methods and results of the different branches of Physics, with a historical perspective of their development.
CG2 - Have the ability to gather and interpret data, information and relevant results, obtain conclusions and issue reasoned reports on scientific, technological or other issues that require the use of knowledge of Physics.
CG3 - Apply both the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired as well as the capacity for analysis and abstraction in the definition and posing of problems and in the search for their solutions both in academic and professional contexts.
TRANSVERSAL
CT1 - Acquire analysis and synthesis capacity.
CT2 - Have the capacity for organization and planning.
CT5 - Develop critical reasoning.
SPECIFIC
CE1 - Have a good understanding of the most important physical theories, locating in their logical and mathematical structure, their experimental support and the physical phenomenon that can be described through them.
CE2 - Be able to clearly handle orders of magnitude and make appropriate estimates in order to develop a clear perception of situations that, although physically different, show some analogy, allowing the use of known solutions to new problems.
CE5 - Be able to perform the essentials of a process or situation and establish a work model of it, as well as perform the required approaches in order to reduce the problem to a manageable level. He will demonstrate critical thinking to build physical models.
CE6 - Understand and master the use of mathematical and numerical methods most commonly used in Physics.
CE8 - Be able to manage, search and use bibliography, as well as any source of relevant information and apply it to research projects and technical development of projects.
The general methodological indications established in the USC Degree Degree Physics Report will be followed. Classes will be face-to-face and the distribution of blackboard and interactive hours follows that specified in the Grade Report.
A course will be activated on the Moodle platform of the Virtual Campus, to which information of interest to the student will be uploaded, as well as diverse teaching material.
Development of the theoretical syllabus in face-to-face classes. The theoretical part is developed with the help of different audiovisual media that generate an attractive content proposal and facilitate their understanding. During the development of the agenda, computer programs and the Internet may be used.
All the student's tasks (study, works, readings) will be guided by the academic staff in tutorials that can be face-to-face or can be done through the USC-virtual means.
In all cases, the tools available in the virtual USC will be used to provide students with the necessary material for the development of the subject (presentations, notes, supporting texts, bibliography, videos, etc.) and to establish fluent communication teacher-student.
Throughout the course problem bulletins will be solved in class. The handing in of these reports will be worth 1 point (out of 10) of the final grade, although it is not mandatory. Participation in the resolution of these problems in class can mean a bonus in the final grade of up to 1 point. 50% of the final mark will be the result of a control with problems taken from the bulletins solved in class. These problems will be previously indicated, and in the control they will be solved with different data from those used in class. The remaining 40% of the mark will come from a final project on a topic selected by the student that is appropriate to the content of the course (40%). Skills in the search for material for the development of the topics, the ability to synthesize in the elaboration of projects and mastery of the topics will be specifically valued.
Students who did not submit to the evaluation of any compulsory activity will obtain the grade of not presented.
In cases of fraudulent performance of exercises or tests, the provisions of the "Regulations for the evaluation of student academic performance and review of grades" will apply.
Large group blackboard class: 21 h
Classes with computer / Laboratory in a small group: 18 h
Tutoring in very small groups or individualized: 3 h
Individual or group autonomous study: 38 h
Writing exercises, conclusions or other work: 20 h
Programming / experimentation and other computer / laboratory work: 12.5 h
Gonzalo Miguez Macho
Coordinador/a- Department
- Particle Physics
- Area
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Phone
- 881814001
- gonzalo.miguez [at] usc.es
- Category
- Professor: University Professor
Alfredo Crespo Otero
- Department
- Particle Physics
- Area
- Condensed Matter Physics
- alfredocrespo.otero [at] usc.es
- Category
- Xunta Pre-doctoral Contract
| Wednesday | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:30-12:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Spanish | Classroom 830 |
| Thursday | |||
| 10:30-12:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Spanish | Classroom 830 |
| Friday | |||
| 10:30-12:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Spanish | Classroom 830 |
| 01.13.2025 16:00-20:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Classroom 0 |
| 01.13.2025 16:00-20:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Classroom 130 |
| 01.13.2025 16:00-20:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Classroom 6 |
| 01.13.2025 16:00-20:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | Classroom 830 |
| 06.16.2025 09:00-13:00 | Grupo /CLE_01 | 3 (Computer Science) |