Those who have an interest in physics or have a background in the same can opt for psychics out of 48 Physics Optional Syllabus for UPSC Mains subjects. This optional subject is detailed and well-designed for the students. So, those who understand the topic can take the subject for Paper 1 and Paper 2 of UPSC mains with 250 marks weightage each. To start preparation, students need detailed information on the syllabus for both papers as follows:
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Paper 1- Physics Optional
Here is the list of the full syllabus for physics optional:
Classical Mechanics
- Particle dynamics: Centre of mass and laboratory coordinates, conservation of linear and angular momentum.
- The rocket equation. Rutherford scattering, Galilean transformation, inertial and non-inertial frames.
- Rotating frames, centrifugal and Coriolis forces, Foucault pendulum.
- System of particles: Constraints, degrees of freedom, generalized coordinates and momenta.
- Lagrange’s equation and applications to the linear harmonic oscillator, simple pendulum and central force problems.
- Cyclic coordinates, Hamiltonian Lagrange’s equation from Hamilton’s principle.
- Rigid body dynamics: Eulerian angles, inertia tensor, principal moments of inertia. Euler’s equation of motion of a rigid body, the force-free motion of a rigid body. Gyroscope.
- Special Relativity: Michelson-Morley experiment and its implications.
- Lorentz transformations- length contraction, time dilation, the addition of velocities, aberration and Doppler effect, mass-energy relation, simple applications to a decay process.
- Minkowski diagram, four-dimensional momentum vector. Covariance of equations of physics.
- Waves: Simple harmonic motion, damped oscillation, forced oscillation and resonance
- Beats. Stationary waves in a string. Pulses and wave packets.
- Phase and group velocities. Reflection and Refraction from Huygens’ principle.
- Geometrical Optics: Laws of reflection and refraction from Fermat’s principle.
- Matrix method in paraxial optics-thin lens formula, nodal planes, system of two thin lenses, chromatic and spherical aberrations
Wave & Optics
- Interference: Interference of light-Young’s experiment, Newton’s rings, interference by thin films, Michelson interferometer.
- Multiple beam interference and Fabry-Perot interferometer. Holography and simple applications.
- Diffraction: Fraunhofer diffraction-single slit, double slit, diffraction grating, resolving power. Fresnel diffraction: – half-period zones and zone plates.
- Fresnel integrals. Application of Cornu’s spiral to the analysis of diffraction at a straight edge and by a long narrow slit. Diffraction by a circular aperture and the Airy pattern.
- Polarisation and Modern Optics: Production and detection of linearly and circularly polarised light. Double refraction, a quarter-wave plate.
- Optical activity. Principles of fibre optics attenuation; pulse dispersion in step-index and parabolic index fibres; material dispersion, single-mode fibre lasers.
- Einstein A and B coefficients. Ruby and He-Ne lasers. Characteristics of laser light-spatial and temporal coherence. Focussing on laser beams. Three-level scheme for laser operation.
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Electricity and Magnetism
- Electrostatics and Magnetostatics: Laplace and Poisson equations in electrostatics and their applications.
- The energy of a system of charges, the multipole expansion of scalar potential. Method of images and their applications.
- Potential and field due to a dipole, force, and torque on a dipole in an external field. Dielectrics, polarisation. Solutions to boundary-value problems-conducting and dielectric spheres in a uniform electric field.
- Magnetic shell, uniformly magnetized sphere. Ferromagnetic materials, hysteresis, energy loss.
- Current Electricity: Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications. Biot-Savart law, Ampere’s law, Faraday’s law, and Lenz’s law.
- Self-and mutual-inductances. Mean and RMS values in AC circuits. LR CR and LCR circuits- series and parallel resonance. Quality factor. Principle of transformer.
Electromagnetic Waves & Black Body Radiation
- Electromagnetic Theory: Displacement current and Maxwell’s equations. Wave equations in vacuum, Poynting theorem.
- Vector and scalar potentials. Gauge invariance, Lorentz and Coulomb gauges. Electromagnetic field tensor, the covariance of Maxwell’s equations.
- Wave equations in isotropic dielectrics, reflection and refraction at the boundary of two dielectrics. Fresnel’s relations.
- Normal and anomalous dispersion. Rayleigh scattering. Blackbody radiation: Black body radiation and Planck radiation law- Stefan-Boltzmann law.
- Wien displacement law and Rayleigh-Jeans law. Planck mass, Planck length, Planck time, Planck temperature and Planck energy.
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Thermal and Statistical Physics
- Thermodynamics: Laws of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, entropy. Isothermal, adiabatic, isobaric, isochoric processes and entropy change
- Otto and Diesel engines, Gibbs’ phase rule and chemical potential. Van Der Waals equation of state of a real gas, critical constants.
- Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular velocities, transport phenomena, equipartition and virial theorems. Dulong-Petit, Einstein, and Debye’s theories of specific heat of solids. Maxwell relations and applications.
- Clausius- Clapeyron equation. Adiabatic demagnetisation, Joule-Kelvin effect and liquefaction of gases Statistical Physics: Saha ionisation formula. Bose-Einstein condensation
- Thermodynamic behaviour of an ideal Fermi gas, Chandrasekhar limit, elementary ideas about neutron stars and pulsars
- Brownian motion is a random walk, diffusion process. Concept of negative temperatures.
Paper 2 – Physics Optional
Here is the list of the full syllabus for physics optional:
Quantum Mechanics 1
- Wave-particle duality. Schroedinger equation and expectation values. Uncertainty principle.
- Solutions of the one-dimensional Schroedinger equation-free particle (Gaussian wave-packet), particle in a box, particle in a finite well, linear harmonic oscillator
- Reflection and transmission by a potential step and by a rectangular barrier. Use of the WKB formula for the lifetime calculation in the alpha-decay problem.
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Quantum Mechanics 2
- Quantum Mechanics II: Particle in a three-dimensional box, the density of states, free electron theory of metals
- The angular momentum problem. The hydrogen atom. The spin half problem and properties of Pauli spin matrices
- Atomic Physics: Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron spin, the fine structure of hydrogen atoms. L-S coupling, J-J coupling
- Spectroscopic notation of atomic states. Zeeman effect. Frank-Condon principle and applications.
Molecular Physics
- Elementary theory of rotational, vibrational and electronic spectra of diatomic molecules. Raman effect and molecular structure
- Laser Raman spectroscopy Importance of neutral hydrogen atom, molecular hydrogen and molecular hydrogen ion in astronomy Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
- Elementary theory and applications of NMR. Elementary ideas about Lamb shift and its significance.
Nuclear Physics
- Basic nuclear properties, binding energy, angular momentum, parity, and magnetic moment. Semi-empirical mass formula and applications
- Mass parabolas. The ground state of a deuteron magnetic moment and non-central forces. Meson’s theory of nuclear forces
- Salient features of nuclear forces. Shell model of the nucleus-success and limitations. Violation of parity in beta decay
- Gamma decay and internal conversion. Elementary ideas about Mossbauer spectroscopy. Q-value of nuclear reactions
- Nuclear fission and fusion, energy production in stars. Nuclear reactors.
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Particle Physics & Solid State Physics
- Particle Physics: Classification of elementary particles and their interactions. Conservation laws. Quark structure of hadrons
- Field quanta of electroweak and strong interactions. Elementary ideas about the Unification of Forces. Physics of neutrinos
- Solid State Physics: Cubic crystal structure. Band theory of solids- conductors, insulators, and semiconductors. Elements of superconductivity, Meissner effect, Josephson junctions and applications.
- Elementary ideas about high-temperature superconductivity.
Electronics
- Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors-p-np and np-n transistors. Amplifiers and oscillators.
- Op-amps. FET, JFET and MOSFET. Digital electronics-Boolean identities, De Morgan’s laws, Logic gates, and truth tables
- Simple logic circuits. Thermistors, solar cells. Fundamentals of microprocessors and digital computers.
- Unlimited Test Re-Attempts.
Conclusion
These are the complete details that students need to know about the exam for physics UPSC optional. The syllabus details have sub-topics that students have to cover when considering the main topic. Some of these are crucial to learn. So, aspirants with physics optional subjects can check the list and begin preparation.
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