PHY 421 A : Mathematical Methods I,

course handout

31/07/2021

• The instructor of this course owns the copyright of all the course materials.
This lecture material is distributed only to the students attending the
course PHY 421A: Mathematical Methods-I of IIT Kanpur, and should not
be distributed in print or through electronic media without the consent of
the instructor. Students can make their own copies of the course materials
for their use.
• The course announcements, problem sets, examination questions, and
links to lecture videos will be posted on the mooKIT https://hello.
iitk.ac.in platform.

• Course Timings :
– Discussions on Mondays 12:00-13:15 (12 sessions), at https://
iitk-ac-in.zoom.us/j/94654766979?pwd=UDEzOW10UW1Mc2JHdngyYlJpbElCZz09
, Meeting ID: 946 5476 6979, Passcode: 089612
– Tutorials on Fridays 08:00-09:00 (11 sessions), at https://iitk-ac-in.
zoom.us/j/96523262582?pwd=NEc0RnlEWEI1UWwrdUdiWnJlZm40Zz09,
Meeting ID: 965 2326 2582, Passcode: 422695
– Sets of two-three lectures for a week will be released asynchronously
in a week.
• References : No textbook will strictly be followed. Parts of the course
will use the following useful references :
1. Complex Variables, Introduction and Applications by M. J. Ablowitz
and A. S. Fokas.
2. Mathematical Methods of Physics by J. Mathews and R. J. Walker.
3. Mathematics for Physics by M. Stone and P. Goldbart.

1
• Evaluation :
1. There will be 5 multiple choice based, timed and announced ques-
tionnaires, with a total of 80% weightage. Out of the 5, one will be
midsem (20%) and another endsem (30%). The rest will carry 10%
weightage each.
2. There will be a set of 9-10 problem sets in the course. Some problems
will be discussed in tutorials, but still students will be required to
submit the PSets. One problem will be randomly graded out of each
PSet. Total weightage of assignments will be 20%.
3. Note, that all evaluation components are open book.

• Contents : We will cover various essential topics in complex variables, for

the first part of this course, with the goal to solve contour integrals using
residue calculus. We will encounter notions of analyticity, branch cuts,
poles, conformal transformations, Cauchy’s theorem, Laurent expansions,
among other things.
The second half of this course will focus on solving ordinary differential
equations using mainly integrals transform techniques. We shall use the
first half of the course to do Fourier, Laplace transforms and asymptotic
evaluations – saddle point integrals. Towards the end of the semester we
will get briefly introduced to tensorial gymnastics.