durham theoretical physics phd

How to Contact Us
Library & Collections
Business School
Things To Do

Degrees Offered

We provide research topics at the forefront of the subject, with good facilities, high quality supervision and monitoring and with relevant postgraduate lecture courses and seminars, as well as opportunities to attend and speak at conferences. Successful postgraduate study at Durham will not only secure your higher degree but will also form a firm foundation for your future career.

We offer the following postgraduate courses:

Taught MSc in Particles, Strings and Cosmology -1 year full-time (or 2 years part-time). This course is administered by the Mathematical Science Department - for queries please complete our Ask Us form
Taught MSc in Scientific Computing and Data Analysis - This course is administered by the Computer Science Department. Taught Postgraduate queries (excluding admissions) [email protected] for any other queries please complete our Ask Us form
MSc by Research 1 year full-time (or 2 years part-time) with a potential transfer to PhD
PhD by Research 3+ years full-time (or 5 years part-time).

Find out more

Further information on studying with us

Studentships and Funding

A street in Durham, with old buildings and people walking down the street

How to Apply

Undergraduate
Postgraduate
International
You are in:
Home ⇨
Department of Physics ⇨

Durham Astronomy Research Cluster

Durham University is one of the UK's leading centres for astronomical research with world-class groups working in a wide range of fields covering the observational, theoretical and instrumentation aspects of astronomy.

Contact Details

Quick links.

CEA/ICC Wednesday seminars
Physics Department Directory
CfAI (Centre for Advanced Instrumentation)
CEA (Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy)
ICC (Institute for Computational Cosmology)
High Energy Astrophysics Group

Latest News

Code of Conduct
Our Culture
Postgraduate opportunities
Postgraduate Study
Fellowship Opportunities
Academic Departments
Course Finder
Student Life
Business Gateway
Business Engagement
Consultancy
Research Commercialisation
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Analytical Services
Employing Durham Graduates
Research Institutes
Research Centres
Centres for Doctoral Training
News and Events
Research Directory
Login/Register
Student Gateway
Dialogue Signposts
Staff Gateway
Staff Directory

Comments and Questions
Charitable Status
Trading Name
Cookie Policy
عربي
中文
Español
Português

Subject Guide: Physics: Theses and Dissertations

Subject Databases

Theses and Dissertations

Archives and Special Collections
Develop Your Skills
Researcher Support This link opens in a new window

Theses banner

You can get in touch through our live chat service or by email, and search our FAQs for answers to your questions.

Accessing Theses and Dissertations

Durham Theses and Dissertations
Other UK Theses and Dissertations
Non-UK Theses and Dissertations

Durham e-Theses contains the full-text of Durham University Higher Degree theses .

All theses passed after 1 October 2009 (with a small number of exceptins) are available, or will be available following an embargo determined by the author. Durham University Library has also digitised its extensive collection of PhD, MPhil and Research Masters dissertations from 1899 onwards.

EThOS - The UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses. EThOS aims to provide a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions, and free access to the full text of as many theses as possible for use by all researchers to further their own research.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses - ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Each year hundreds of thousands of works are added. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637. If needed you can limit your results to institutions from countries in the UK.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations - OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.

DART-Europe E-Theses Portal - A partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.

South African Theses and Dissertations - via the National ETD Portal.

Australian Theses via TROVE - a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia.

OAIster - A union catalog of millions of records that represent open access resources. It includes more than 50 million records that represent digital resources from more than 2,000 contributors. Results can be limited to just theses and dissertations.

Theses Canada - Launched in 1965 at the request of the deans of Canadian graduate schools, is a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Canadian universities. It strives to acquire and preserve theses and dissertations from participating universities, provide free access to Canadian digital theses and dissertations in the collection, and to facilitate access to non-digital theses and dissertations in the collection

Social media

<< Previous: Newspapers
Next: Media >>
Last Updated: Jun 4, 2024 3:55 PM
URL: https://libguides.durham.ac.uk/physics

Undergraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2021-2022 (archived)

Module PHYS3661 : THEORETICAL PHYSICS 3

Department: physics, phys3661 : theoretical physics 3, prerequisites.

Foundations of Physics 2A (PHYS2581) AND Theoretical Physics 2 (PHYS2631) AND (Mathematical Methods in Physics (PHYS2611) OR Analysis in Many Variables (MATH2031)).

Corequisites

Foundations of Physics 3A (PHYS3621).

Excluded Combination of Modules

This module is designed primarily for students studying Department of Physics or Natural Sciences degree programmes.
It builds on the Level 2 modules Foundations of Physics 2A (PHYS2581) and Theoretical Physics 2 (PHYS2631) by introducing more advanced methods in electromagnetism that can be used to investigate more realistic problems and concepts, and by introducing more advanced topics in quantum mechanics as well as addressing further applications and conceptual issues of measurement and interpretation.
The syllabus contains:
Relativistic Electrodynamics: Einsteinâ€™s postulates, the geometry of relativity, Lorentz transformations, structure of space-time, proper time and proper velocity, relativistic energy and momentum, relativistic kinematics, relativistic dynamics, magnetism as a relativistic phenomenon, how the fields transform, the field tensor, electrodynamics in tensor notation, relativistic potentials, scalar and vector potentials, gauge transformations, Coulomb gauge, retarded potentials, fields of a moving point charge, dipole radiation, radiation from point charges.
Quantum Theory: Scattering experiments and cross sections; potential scattering (general features); spherical Bessel functions (application: the bound states of a spherical square well); the method of partial waves (scattering phase shift, scattering length, resonances, applications); the integral equation of potential scattering; the Born approximation; collisions between identical particles, introduction to multichannel scattering; the density matrix (ensemble averages, the density matrix for a spin-1/2 system and spin-polarization); quantum mechanical ensembles and applications to single-particle systems; systems of non-interacting particles (Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics, ideal Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein gases); the Klein-Gordon equation; the Dirac equation; covariant formulation of Dirac theory; plane wave solutions of the Dirac equation; solutions of the Dirac equation for a central potential; negative energy states and hole theory; non-relativistic limit of the Dirac equation; measurements and interpretation (hidden variables, the EPR paradox, Bellâ€™s theorem, the problem of measurement).

Learning Outcomes

Having studied this module, students will have developed a working knowledge of tensor calculus, and be able to apply their understanding to relativistic electromagnetism.
They will have a systematic understanding of quantum theory, including collision theory and relativistic quantum mechanics.
In addition to the acquisition of subject knowledge, students will be able to apply the principles of physics to the solution of complex problems.
They will know how to produce a well-structured solution, with clearly-explained reasoning and appropriate presentation.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

Teaching will be by lectures and workshops.
The lectures provide the means to give a concise, focused presentation of the subject matter of the module. The lecture material will be defined by, and explicitly linked to, the contents of the recommended textbooks for the module, thus making clear where students can begin private study. When appropriate, the lectures will also be supported by the distribution of written material, or by information and relevant links on DUO.
Regular problem exercises and workshops will give students the chance to develop their theoretical understanding and problem solving skills.
Students will be able to obtain further help in their studies by approaching their lecturers, either after lectures or at other mutually convenient times.
Student performance will be summatively assessed through an examination and formatively assessed through problem exercises and a progress test. The examination will provide the means for students to demonstrate the acquisition of subject knowledge and the development of their problem-solving skills.
The problem exercises and progress test provide opportunities for feedback, for students to gauge their progress and for staff to monitor progress throughout the duration of the module.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative assessment, formative assessment:.

Problem exercises and self-assessment; one progress test, workshops and problems solved therein.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University

MSci in Mathematics and Physics within the Natural Sciences programme (FGC0): 2024-2025

For more information about the Natural Sciences degree programme, please contact:

Prof James Blowey Deputy Head of Faculty Faculty of Science Office Level 3 Chemistry Building Durham University DH1 3LE UK

Fax: 0191 334 1018 Email: Natural Sciences Director

WWW: Natural Sciences home page

The Natural Sciences web pages are maintained by James Blowey

NatSci Quick Links

All subjects Group 1 Biology Chemistry Computer Science Earth Sciences Mathematics Physics Psychology Group 2 Anthropology Business Economics Geography Philosophy Group 3 Education Sport

B.Sc. Degrees M.Sci. Degrees

2024-25 Timetable

Natural Sciences home
MSci Joint Honours
Current Students

THEORETICAL PHYSICS NOTES BY RICHIE DADHLEY

This page contains all the notes in chronological order.

SUSY (Prof. Minwalla)

These are the notes to Prof. Shiraz Minwalla's 2021/22 online course on SUSY. The recordings of the lectures is available on YouTube via this link .

These notes will be updated periodically as the course goes on.

Superstring Perturbation Theory

These are the notes to Prof. Ashoke Sen's 2022 online course on Superstring Perturbation Theory. The course was given over zoom: the recordings and lecture notes made during teaching are available via Prof. Sen's website (under "0. Ongoing course on ‘Superstring perturbation theory’").

Toric Geometry

These notes aim to expand on the Complex Manifolds notes previously written. While those notes focues on Calabi-Yau manifolds from a differential geometry perspective, these notes we introduce the algebraic geometry techniques in order to study them. We show how to construct what are known as toric varieties from so-called fans. This approach is almost a trivial combinatorics game, and provides a very powerful and useful way to construct Calabi-Yau manifolds with desired properties.

Complex Manifolds (Calabi-Yau)

Geometry has found immense use in the study of mathematical physics, and often provides a much more intuitive explanation to difficult physical problems. Perhaps the most obvi- ous/prominent example of this is general relativity. This is built on the mathematical con- struction of real manifolds and their associated structures. However, of course the natural extension of such tools would be to consider the complex counterpart, complex manifolds. These notes aim to do just that, giving a somewhat smooth transition from a real manifold to a complex manifold, in a hopefully pedagogical manner. The main goal is the construction of Calabi-Yau manifolds as hypersurfaces in complex projective spaces.

Twistor Theory (Summer Projcet)

This project aims to introduce twistor theory at the level of a masters student in theoretical physics. We focus on the geometrical aspects of twistor theory, presenting the incidence relations and how they relate the geometry of complex Minkowski space, MC, to projective twistor space, PT: a point in MC corresponds to a line in PT; and two intersecting lines in PT (which define a point in PT) correspond to null separated points in MC. The main result is a reasonably detailed presentation of the linear Penrose transform; an isomorphism which relates the solutions of zero-rest-mass field equations with helicity n and the first Čech cohomology group Hˇ 1(PT±; O(−n − 2)) on projective twistor space. We also present several other neat twistor theory results, including a demonstration of how to encode the conformal structure of the spacetime in twistor space.

These are my notes on the "Amplitudes" course taught at Durham University in 2020.

The course presents scatting amplitude calculations from a modern, spinor-helicity, formalism. In particular we focus on spin-1 purely gluonic amplitudes. The Parke-Taylor formula for MHV amplitudes and the BCFW recursion relation are derived.

By presenting amplitudes in this way, we highlight underlying symmetries that are non-manifest in the Feynman diagram approach.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 8 hours.

Supersymmetry

These are my notes on the "SUSY" course given at Durham University in 2020.

We work through the steps needed to construct SUSY QFTs, first presenting SUSY itself and discussing supermultiplets (irreps of the SUSY algebra). We then also present a method for constructing SUSY actions in order to obtain off-shell fields.

Comments/short sections on other related material is also included. For example the non-renormalisable theorem for superpotentials is briefly discussed.

I have typed up all the lectured material, and plan to come back and type up the non-lectured material on the non-linear sigma model and spontaneous SUSY breaking.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 16 hours.

Conformal Field Theory

These are my notes on the "CFT" course given at Durham University in 2020.

Part I of the course discusses D>2 CFTs and introduces a lot of machinery for studying CFTs. We also touch on Bootstrap techniques and their uses.

Part II of the course discusses D=2 CFTs and points out the differences that arise there. String theory is touched upon, but more as an example then a study.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 16 hours.

Quantum Field Theory II

These are my notes on the "QFT II" course given at Durham University in 2019. This course builds on the QFT I course and studies QFT from the path integral approach. We discuss renormalisation as well as showing how to quantise gauge (both Abelian and non-Abelian) theories in the path integral approach.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 16 hours. There was a strike during the course and 6 hours of the course were not taught. However, Dr. Iqbal gave us notes for the bits missed, so this additional material is also included.

Quantum Electrodynamics

These are my notes on the "QED" course given at Durham University in 2019. This course studies quantum electrodynamics, which is the QFT for the electromagnetic interactions.

This course is essentially a course on the renormalisation of QED and a large chunk of it is dedicated to doing 1-loop renormalisation.

Symplectic Geoemtry & Classical Mechanics

These are the notes I've been making on Professor Tobias Osborne's Symplectic Geometry course given at Institüt für Theoretische Physik, Leibniz Universität Hannover in 2017-18. This course is available on YouTube .

I don't yet know the full content of the course (as I have only just started it) but will update this summary later.

These are a work in progress , and I shall update them as I go. As with my String Theory notes below, these might not be updated very often as I am rather busy with other courses, but will try keep up to date.

Quantum Field Theory I

These are my notes on the "QFT I" course given at Durham University in 2019. This is only a short course designed to introduce the concepts of path integrals. It doesn't actually deal with QFT itself, but instead studies QM in 1-dimension in terms of path integrals. The follow up course, QFT II, will deal with the actual QFT.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 8 hours.

Group Theory (For Particle Physicists)

These are my notes on the "Group Theory (For Particle Physicists)" course given at Durham University in 2019. The course starts by defining groups, Lie groups and Lie algebras. We then discuss representations both both and Young-Tableux diagrams. We then briefly discuss Cartan's classification of Lie algebras.

The course was taught over 3 weeks and lasted 12 hours. (Should have been longer in my opinion!)

These are now done, but I might return later and add some more information.

Introduction To Field Theory

These are my notes on the "Introduction to Field Theory" course given at Durham University in 2019. The course is an introduction to quantum field theory and could just as easily be called QFT1 or something. It starts from the motivation for QFT, studies free theories, and then presents Feynman rules in order to study interacting field theory. Spin-0 and Spin-1/2 particles are addressed. Spin-1 will be addressed later in a QED course.

The course was taught over 4 weeks and lasted 24 hours.

The WE-Heraeus International Winter School on Gravity and Light

These are my notes on the International Winter School on Gravity and Light taught in 2015. It is a self contained course in the topic of general relativity. The videos are available via YouTube . It is mainly taught by Dr. Frederic Schuller and I have typed up all of his lectures. I have also typed up the tutorials at the end of the document for question practice.

This course is brilliant and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to learn GR, even if they have been introduced to it before as the level of detail is exceptional.

Thanks to Jon A. Gomez these notes have now been translated into Spanish! Click the corresponding button to see these. I extend a huge thank you to Jon for doing this!

String Theory

These are my notes on Dr. Shiraz Minwalla's highly entertaining String theory course. I have also used several of the results/descriptions given in Dr. David Tong's Part III Cambridge notes.

These are a work in progress , and I shall update them after each lecture or two is typed up. I prioritised other courses (i.e. Durham ones) over this one previously, but do intend to come back and finish these soon.

Quantum Theory

These are the joint notes by Simon Rea and myself on Dr. Frederic Schuller's course on Quantum Theory, available on youtube .

This course starts from a completely fundamental basis and builds up to a great working knowledge of quantum theory. Very little is assumed prior knowledge, however an understanding of linear algebra is highly useful.

The lectured material is all typed up, but I am starting to read up on Rigged Hilbert Spaces to include an extra lecture (as several people have requested in YouTube comments). This will be updated once typed up.

The notes have also been edited by Jonah Herr to make them more readable.

Simon also has notes on his blog for Dr. Schuller's other courses which I recommend looking at.

Space-Time Transformations of Dispersive, Nonlinear Materials (Lancaster Thesis)

Abstract: Transformation optics is a powerful mathematical tool which has found extensive use through the design of metamaterials. One of the main areas of interest is that of producing cloaks, in both space and time. Although the effects of transformation optics have been studied for the cases of a dispersive background material and a nonlinear background material separately, they are yet to be studied on a material that is both dispersive and non- linear. This thesis considers this case and we provide a formalism for taking space-time transformations of materials whose dispersion is consistent to that of a one-pole resonator and whose nonlinearity is given by that of a Kerr medium. The problem is solved using both integral and differential methods, and the generation of non-trivial nonlinearities are shown explicitly. The methodology is set up in a way that the extension to higher powered nonlinearities is simple, and examples of how one would do that are provided throughout.

My Thoughts On Black Holes

This is some notes I made on my interpretation of gravity and black holes. I have tried to formulate the problem at the manifold level (i.e. without using coordinates). The main approach is to look at light cones and killing vector fields produced by your gravitating mass. I argue that what gravity does is cause a 'relative rotation' between these two. I have tried to provide as much background information as possible to make it accessible to beginner relativists (as I myself am).

This is a work in progress.

How to Contact Us
Library & Collections
Business School
Things To Do

Theoretical Physics

September 2025
September 2024

4 years full-time

Durham City

Typical offers

Course details.

This integrated Master’s degree is the first step towards Chartered Physicist status. It will suit those looking for an accredited course that focuses on the mathematical and theoretical aspects of physics. Many graduates progress to higher level education followed by careers in research or teaching. For others, the course has opened the door to a range of professions where advanced analytic, numeric or computational skills are in demand.

Undergraduate physics degrees at Durham offer a high level of flexibility. We offer four Institute of Physics accredited courses – MPhys qualifications in Physics, Physics and Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics and the three-year BSc in Physics – which follow the same core curriculum in Year 1.

Subject to the optional modules chosen, it is possible to switch to one of the other courses until the end of the second year. You can also apply for a one-year work placement or study abroad opportunity with one of our partner organisations, increasing the course from four years to five or substituting the existing Year 3.

The first year lays the foundation in physics theory, mathematical skills and laboratory skills that you will need to tackle more complex content later in the course. As you progress through the course the level of theoretical content increases, extending your knowledge in areas such as electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, particle theory and advanced mathematical theory.

In Years 3 and 4 the curriculum is more closely aligned to real-world issues through a combination of theory and project work, including a final-year project on a topic at the forefront of developments in one of our research institutes.

Course structure

Core modules:.

Foundations of Physics introduces classical aspects of wave phenomena and electromagnetism, as well as basic concepts in Newtonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, special relativity and optical physics.

Discovery Skills in Physics provides a practical introduction to laboratory skills development with particular emphasis on measurement uncertainty, data analysis and written and oral communication skills. It also includes an introduction to programming.

In recent years, optional modules have included:

Single Mathematics
Linear Algebra

Please note: it is compulsory to study two Maths modules (as background mathematical knowledge for the Foundations module).

Foundations of Physics A develops your knowledge of quantum mechanics and electromagnetism. You will learn to apply the principles of physics to predictable and unpredictable problems and produce a well-structured solution, with clear reasoning and appropriate presentation.

Foundations of Physics B develops your knowledge of thermodynamics, condensed matter physics and optics.

Mathematical Methods in Physics provides the necessary mathematical knowledge and understanding to successfully tackle the Foundations of Physics modules. It covers vectors, vector integral and vector differential calculus, multivariable calculus and orthogonal curvilinear coordinates, Fourier analysis, orthogonal functions, the use of matrices, and the mathematical tools for solving ordinary and partial differential equations occurring in a variety of physical problems.

Theoretical Physics provides a working knowledge of classical mechanics and complements the quantum mechanics content of the module Foundations of Physics A. In this module you will explore the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations of classical mechanics and the rotational motion of a rigid body. You will learn to describe elements of quantum mechanics in a rigorous mathematical way and to manipulate them at the operator level.

Laboratory Skills and Electronics builds lab-based skills, such as experiment planning, data analysis, scientific communication and specific practical skills. It aims to teach electronics as a theoretical and a practical subject, to teach the techniques of computational physics and numerical methods and to provide experience of a research-led investigation in physics in preparation for post-university life.

Stars and Galaxies
Physics in Society

Foundations of Physics A further develops your knowledge to include quantum mechanics and nuclear and particle physics. You will learn to apply the principles of physics to complex problems and produce a well-structured solution, with clear reasoning and appropriate presentation.

Foundations of Physics B includes the study of statistical physics and condensed matter physics.

Theoretical Physics introduces more advanced methods in electromagnetism that can be used to investigate more realistic problems and concepts. It also builds your quantum mechanics knowledge and addressing further applications and conceptual issues of measurement and interpretation.

The Computing Project is designed to develop your computational and problem-solving skills. You work on advanced computational physics problems using a variety of modern computing techniques and present your findings in a project report, poster and oral presentation.

Mathematics Workshop introduces some of the mathematical tools you will need to solve a variety of physical problems. These include vectors and matrices, complex analysis, calculus of variations, and integral variations.

Team Project
Advanced Laboratory
Physics into Schools
Planets and Cosmology
Condensed Matter Physics
Modern Atomic and Optical Physics.

The research-based MPhys Project can be carried out individually or as part of a small group. It provides experience of work in a research environment on a topic at the forefront of developments in a branch of either physics, applied physics, theoretical physics or astronomy, and develops transferable skills for the oral and written presentation of research. The project can be carried out in one of the Department’s research groups or in collaboration with an external organisation.

Advanced Theoretical Physics provides a working knowledge of non-relativistic quantum mechanical problems. You will explore some of the modern theories of electronic structure and vibrational properties of materials including superconductivity; the quantum nature of light; and the concepts of entangled states and mixed states and their relevance in experiments.

Particle Theory will familiarise you with some of the key results of relativistic quantum mechanics and its application to simple systems; the principles of quantum field theory and the role of symmetry in modern particle physics; and the standard model of particle physics and its experimental foundations.

Atoms, Lasers and Qubits
Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
Advanced Astrophysics
Theoretical Astrophysics
Modern Atomic and Optical Physics.

Additional pathways

Students on the MPhys in Theoretical Physics can apply to be transferred onto either the ‘ with Year Abroad ’ or ‘ with Placement ’ pathway during the second year. Places on these pathways are in high demand and if you are chosen you can choose to extend your course from four years to five, or substitute the existing Year 3.

Create Your Own Prospectus

Explore Our Scholarships

Meet Our Students

A mixed group of students sat in comfy chairs chatting

Lectures are the starting point of the learning process. You will actively engage with the topics introduced in lectures through a combination of laboratory classes, problem exercises, tutorials and workshops.

Laboratory classes give you the chance to plan experiments and to interpret data. You will also be set regular problem exercises which develop your theoretical understanding and problem-solving abilities; these exercises form the basis for discussions in small-group tutorials.

Assessment is mainly by end-of-year examinations and by project reports and presentations.

The range of assessment methods is designed to assess your knowledge and understanding of the course content, test your capacity to solve problems, enhance your written and oral communication skills, and assess your ability to relate your learning to real-world scenarios.

Entry requirements

A level offer – A*A*A including Physics and Mathematics.

Contextual offer – A*AB including Physics and Mathematics.

BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma/OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma – D*D*D and A levels as above.

IB Diploma score – 38 with 776 in higher level subjects, including Mathematics (maths analysis & approaches) and Physics.

In addition to satisfying the University’s general entry requirements, please note:

We also consider other level 3 qualifications, including T-levels.
We welcome applications from those with other qualifications equivalent to our standard entry requirements and from mature students with non-standard qualifications or who may have had a break in their study.
Entry requirements for all four Physics degrees are the same and transfer from the BSc degree to the MPhys degree is possible and is based upon first and second-year examinations.
We may request further information such as UMS marks and/or predicted grades if this information is not available on the UCAS application. This is to ensure that we have an equal amount of information for all applicants. If for some reason this cannot be supplied, the candidate’s application will not be disadvantaged.
If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take an International Foundation Year pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre .
We are pleased to consider applications for deferred entry.

Science A levels

Applicants taking Science A levels that include a practical component will be required to take and pass this as a condition of entry. This applies only to applicants sitting A levels with an English examination board.

Alternative qualifications

Other UK qualifications
EU qualifications
International qualifications

International students who do not meet direct entry requirements for this degree might have the option to complete an International Foundation Year.

English language requirements

Country specific information

Fees and funding

The tuition fees for 2025/26 academic year have not yet been finalised, they will be displayed here once approved.

The tuition fees shown for home students are for one complete academic year of full time study and are set according to the academic year of entry. Fees for subsequent years of your course may rise in line with an inflationary uplift as determined by the government.

The tuition fees shown for overseas and EU students are for one complete academic year of full time study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and remain the same throughout the duration of the programme for that cohort (unless otherwise stated) .

Please also check costs for colleges and accommodation .

Scholarships and Bursaries

We are committed to supporting the best students irrespective of financial circumstances and are delighted to offer a range of funding opportunities.

Career opportunities

We seek to develop the practical and intellectual skills sought by employers and we are regularly ranked among the country's top performers for graduate employment. Our graduates have progressed to careers in business, industry, commerce, research, management and education, and typically more than fifth of our graduates go on to study for higher degrees.

The Department also has an impressive track record of spin-out technology companies that commercialise our knowledge in areas of semiconductors, composites and advanced instrumentation. Examples of high-profile employers include BT, Procter & Gamble, Rolls Royce and BAE Systems.

Of those students who graduated in 2020-21:

93% are in paid employment or further study 15 months after graduation across all our programmes

Of those in employment:

95% are in high skilled employment
With an average salary of £33,000.

(Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey. The survey asks leavers from higher education what they are doing 15 months after graduation. Further information about the Graduate Outcomes survey can be found here www.graduateoutcomes.ac.uk )

Department information

With recent ground-breaking discoveries in astronomy, the Universe, subatomic particles and nuclear fusion there’s never been a better time to study physics. Join one of the UK’s leading teaching and research departments and become a part of this exciting discipline.

When you study physics at Durham you will work with experts across a range of specialisms to explore subjects such as the Big Bang, black holes, the Higgs boson, high-temperature superconductors, lasers, cold-atom Bose-Einstein condensates, biophysics and more.

Our undergraduate physics degrees offer outstanding teaching, learning and employability outcomes for students. We offer four Institute of Physics accredited BSc and MPhys qualifications which share a common first year. Course content ranges from fundamental topics, such as elementary particle physics and cosmology, to applied areas which include material physics and biophysics.

All courses allow you to select a number of modules tailored to your interests and career aspirations, and the course structures have been designed to provide flexibility in your final choice of degree. This means, depending on modules chosen, you need not make a firm decision about your course until the end of the second year. You also have the option to apply for a year-long work placement or study abroad opportunity with one of our partner organisations.

For more information see our department pages.

World Top 100 in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2023

2nd in The Guardian University Guide 2024

3rd in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024
3rd in The Complete University Guide 2024

For a current list of staff, please see the Physics Department pages.

Research Excellence Framework

96% of our research outputs are world-leading or internationally excellent (REF 2021).

Our Department lies in the heart of the University on the main campus among the science and engineering departments and the University library. The main Department building houses all the lectures and teaching laboratories as well as some of our world-class facilities such as our Cosma 8 supercomputer, which has the processing power and memory of about 28,000 home PCs. This enables scientists to simulate the evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day with unprecedented accuracy.

We also have state-of-the-art scanning electron microscopes (SEM), transmission electron microscopes (TEM) and focused ion-beam microscopes (FIB) that are accessible to staff and students from physics, chemistry, earth sciences, engineering and biology areas. Students who undertake a project in observational astronomy will have access to the telescopes sited on the roof of the Physics building as well as our remotely operated telescope (0.5m) on La Palma.

The Department also includes the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, which is home to the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology and the Institute for Computational Cosmology.

Find out more:

Use the UCAS code below when applying:

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) handles applications for all undergraduate courses.

Contextual Offers
Admissions Policy

The best way to find out what Durham is really like is to come and see for yourself!

Register for an Undergraduate Open Day

Date: 01/09/2023 - 31/08/2024
Time: 09:00 - 16:00

Self-Guided Tours

Similar courses, geophysics - bsc.

Mathematics - BSc

Mathematics - mmath, mathematics and statistics - mmath, mathematics and statistics - bsc, physics - mphys, physics - bsc, physics and astronomy - mphys.

See more courses

Diversity & Inclusion
Community Values
Visiting MIT Physics
People Directory
Faculty Awards
History of MIT Physics
Policies and Procedures
Departmental Committees
Academic Programs Team
Finance Team
Meet the Academic Programs Team
Prospective Students
Requirements
Employment Opportunities
Research Opportunities
Graduate Admissions
Doctoral Guidelines
Financial Support
Graduate Student Resources
PhD in Physics, Statistics, and Data Science
MIT LEAPS Program
for Undergraduate Students
for Graduate Students
Mentoring Programs Info for Faculty
Non-degree Programs
Student Awards & Honors
Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
Astrophysics Theory
Atomic Physics
Condensed Matter Experiment
Condensed Matter Theory
High Energy and Particle Theory
Nuclear Physics Experiment
Particle Physics Experiment
Quantum Gravity and Field Theory
Quantum Information Science
Strong Interactions and Nuclear Theory
Center for Theoretical Physics
Affiliated Labs & Centers
Program Founder
Competition
Donor Profiles
Patrons of Physics Fellows Society
Giving Opportunties
physics@mit Journal: Fall 2023 Edition
Events Calendar
Physics Colloquia
Search for: Search

Ten with MIT connections win 2024 Hertz Foundation Fellowships

The fellowships provide five years of funding to doctoral students in applied science, engineering, and mathematics who have “the extraordinary creativity and principled leadership necessary to tackle problems others can’t solve.”.

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation announced that it has awarded fellowships to 10 PhD students with ties to MIT. The prestigious award provides each recipient with five years of doctoral-level research funding (up to a total of $250,000), which allows them the flexibility and autonomy to pursue their own innovative ideas.

Fellows also receive lifelong access to Hertz Foundation programs, such as events, mentoring, and networking. They join the ranks of over 1,300 former Hertz Fellows who are leaders and scholars in a range of fields in science, engineering, and technology. Connections among fellows over the years have sparked collaborations in startups, research, and technology commercialization.

The 10 MIT recipients are among a total of 18 Hertz Foundation Fellows scholars selected this year from across the country. Five of them received their undergraduate degrees at the Institute and will pursue their PhDs at other schools. Two are current MIT graduate students, and four will begin their studies here in the fall.

“For more than 60 years, Hertz Fellows have led scientific and technical innovation in national security, applied biological sciences, materials research, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and more. Their contributions have been essential in advancing U.S. competitiveness,” says Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation board of directors and founder and president of Optikos Corp. “I’m excited to watch our newest Hertz Fellows as they pursue challenging research and continue the strong tradition of applying their work for the greater good.”

This year’s MIT-affiliated awardees are:

Owen Dugan ’24 graduated from MIT in just two-and-a-half years with a degree in physics, and he plans to pursue a PhD in computer science at Stanford University. His research interests lie at the intersection of AI and physics. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in a broad range of areas, including using physics concepts to enhance the speed of large language models and developing machine learning algorithms that automatically discover scientific theories. He was recognized with MIT’s Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award and is a U.S. Presidential Scholar, a Neo Scholar, and a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Dugan holds multiple patents, co-developed an app to reduce food waste, and co-founded a startup that builds tools to verify the authenticity of digital images.

Kaylie Hausknecht will begin her physics doctorate at MIT in the fall, having completing her undergraduate degree in physics and astrophysics at Harvard University. While there, her undergraduate research focused on developing new machine learning techniques to solve problems in a range of fields, such as fluid dynamics, astrophysics, and condensed matter physics. She received the Hoopes Prize for her senior thesis, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, and won two major writing awards. In addition, she completed five NASA internships. As an intern, she helped identify 301 new exoplanets using archival data from the Kepler Space Telescope. Hausknecht served as the co-president of Harvard’s chapter of Science Club for Girls, which works to encourage girls from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue STEM.

Elijah Lew-Smith majored in physics at Brown University and plans to pursue a doctoral degree in physics at MIT. He is a theoretical physicist with broad intellectual interests in effective field theory (EFT), which is the study of systems with many interacting degrees of freedom. EFT reveals how to extract the relevant, long-distance behavior from complicated microscopic rules. In 2023, he received a national award to work on applying EFT systematically to non-equilibrium and active systems such as fluctuating hydrodynamics or flocking birds. In addition, Lew-Smith received a scholarship from the U.S. State Department to live for a year in Dakar, Senegal, and later studied at ’École Polytechnique in Paris, France.

Rupert Li ’24 earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MIT in mathematics as well as computer science, data science, and economics, with a minor in business analytics.He was named a 2024 Marshall Scholar and will study abroad for a year at Cambridge University before matriculating at Stanford University for a mathematics doctorate. As an undergraduate, Li authored 12 math research articles, primarily in combinatorics, but also including discrete geometry, probability, and harmonic analysis. He was recognized for his work with a Barry Goldwater Scholarship and an honorable mention for the Morgan Prize, one of the highest undergraduate honors in mathematics.

Amani Maina-Kilaas is a first-year doctoral student at MIT in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he studies computational psycholinguistics. In particular, he is interested in using artificial intelligence as a scientific tool to study how the mind works, and using what we know about the mind to develop more cognitively realistic models. Maina-Kilaas earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics from Harvey Mudd College. There, he conducted research regarding intention perception and theoretical machine learning, earning the Astronaut Scholarship and Computing Research Association’s Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.

Zoë Marschner ’23 is a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University working on geometry processing, a subfield of computer graphics focused on how to represent and work with geometric data digitally; in her research, she aims to make these representations capable of enabling fundamentally better algorithms for solving geometric problems across science and engineering. As an undergraduate at MIT, she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and math and pursued research in geometry processing, including repairing hexahedral meshes and detecting intersections between high-order surfaces. She also interned at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where she worked on collision detection algorithms for simulation. Marschner is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and the Goldwater Scholarship.

Zijian (William) Niu will start a doctoral program in computational and systems biology at MIT in the fall. He has a particular interest in developing new methods for imaging proteins and other biomolecules in their native cellular environments and using those data to build computational models for predicting their dynamics and molecular interactions. Niu received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, biophysics, and physics from the University of Pennsylvania. His undergraduate research involved developing novel computational methods for biological image analysis. He was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for creating a deep-learning algorithm for accurately detecting tiny diffraction-limited spots in fluorescence microscopy images that outperformed existing methods in quantifying spatial transcriptomics data.

James Roney received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard University in computer science and statistics, respectively. He is currently working as a machine learning research engineer at D.E. Shaw Research. His past research has focused on interpreting the internal workings of AlphaFold and modeling cancer evolution. Roney plans to pursue a PhD in computational biology at MIT, with a specific interest in developing computational models of protein structure, function, and evolution and using those models to engineer novel proteins for applications in biotechnology.

Anna Sappington ’19 is a student in the Harvard University-MIT MD-PhD Program, currently in the first year of her doctoral program at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science. She is interested in building methods to predict evolutionary events, especially connections among machine learning, biology, and chemistry to develop reinforcement learning models inspired by evolutionary biology. Sappington graduated from MIT with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and molecular biology. As an undergraduate, she was awarded a 2018 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and selected as a Burchard Scholar and an Amgen Scholar. After graduating, she earned a master’s degree in genomic medicine from the University of Cambridge, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, as well as a master’s degree in machine learning from University College London.

Jason Yang ’22 received his bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in computer science from MIT and is currently a doctoral student in genetics at Stanford University. He is interested in understanding the biological processes that underlie human health and disease. At MIT, and subsequently at Massachusetts General Hospital, Yang worked on the mechanisms involved in neurodegeneration in repeat expansion diseases, uncovering a novel molecular consequence of repeat protein aggregation.

Related News

Nuh Gedik receives 2024 National Brown Investigator Award

QS ranks MIT the world’s No. 1 university for 2024-25

Sarah Millholland receives 2024 Vera Rubin Early Career Award

Conferences
How to Post
Mailing List
h@gu scientists
Online Talks
Useful Links

PhD Position in Theoretical Physics, Vienna

by hyperspace_bot
2024/06/04 2024/06/04

We are looking for a M.Sc. in theoretical physics. The prospective PhD candidate should have a background in quantum field theory, general relativity and cosmology as can be obtained in typical introductory courses for master students. He or she should be enthusiastic about doing a PhD thesis in a collaborative team consisting of theoretical and experimental physicists of the Atominstitut. This 3-year PhD position will be in the theory group of Mario Pitschmann, which focuses on the search for dark energy and dark matter by using high-precision tabletop experiments.

The candidate should be self-driven, talented and a team player. Please provide the following: two letters of recommendation (one from the supervisor of the master thesis), CV, electronic copy (e.g. PDF) of the master thesis.