Physics Library — Index

The foundational natural science: matter, energy, space, time, and their interactions, from the subatomic to the cosmological. Sister library to Chemistry/, Biology/, MaterialsScience/, and ClimateScience/; sits beneath the mathematics of Math-and-Compute/Math/ and above the applied treatments in Engineering-and-Robotics/Engineering/. This library carries the physics foundations; where a topic also has an engineering or chemistry home, the foundational physics lives here and the applied treatment is cross-linked, not duplicated.

  • Status: Tier 1 complete across all major disciplines (18 notes, authored 2026-06-01).
  • Units: SI primary; natural units (\hbar = c = 1) noted where conventional in QFT/particle physics; astronomical units (M_\odot, pc, eV) where idiomatic.
  • Math conventions: equations in KaTeX ($...$ / $$...$$); LaTeX commands throughout (no raw Unicode inside math).

Tier 1 — Core theoretical foundations

TopicFileScope
Classical mechanicsclassical-mechanicsNewtonian → Lagrangian → Hamiltonian, central force, rigid body, chaos
Electromagnetismelectromagnetismelectro/magnetostatics, Maxwell’s equations, EM waves, radiation, covariant form
Thermodynamics & statistical mechanicsthermodynamics-and-statistical-mechanicsthe four laws, potentials, ensembles, quantum statistics, phase transitions
Quantum mechanicsquantum-mechanicspostulates, Schrödinger, exactly-solvable systems, spin, perturbation, entanglement
Special & general relativityspecial-and-general-relativityLorentz/Minkowski, equivalence principle, Einstein field equations, black holes
Quantum field theoryquantum-field-theoryfield quantization, Feynman diagrams, QED, renormalization, gauge theory

Tier 1 — Matter, scales, and states

TopicFileScope
Atomic, molecular & optical physicsatomic-molecular-and-optical-physicsatomic spectra, light-matter interaction, laser cooling, ultracold matter, clocks
Nuclear physicsnuclear-physicsbinding energy, radioactivity, reactions, fission, fusion, nucleosynthesis
Particle physics & the Standard Modelparticle-physics-and-the-standard-modelquarks/leptons, QCD/electroweak, the Higgs, neutrinos, beyond-SM
Condensed matter physicscondensed-matter-physicscrystals, phonons, band theory, magnetism, superconductivity, topological phases
Plasma physicsplasma-physicsDebye shielding, MHD, waves & instabilities, fusion & astrophysical plasmas
Fluid dynamicsfluid-dynamicsNavier-Stokes, ideal/viscous flow, vorticity, turbulence, compressible flow

Tier 1 — The universe

TopicFileScope
Astrophysics & cosmologyastrophysics-and-cosmologystars, compact objects, galaxies, FLRW/ΛCDM, the CMB, dark matter & dark energy
Waves, optics & acousticswaves-optics-and-acousticsoscillations, the wave equation, geometric & physical optics, lasers, acoustics

Tier 1 — Interdisciplinary & methods

TopicFileScope
Biophysicsbiophysicslow-Reynolds life, macromolecule statistical mechanics, molecular motors, membranes
GeophysicsgeophysicsEarth’s interior, seismology, gravity/geodesy, the geodynamo, geodynamics
Quantum information & computationquantum-information-and-computationqubits, entanglement, gates & algorithms, error correction, hardware platforms
Computational physicscomputational-physicsnumerical methods, Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, DFT, lattice QCD, HPC

Coverage notes

  • Acoustics is folded into waves-optics-and-acoustics; optics/photonics foundations live there too, with the device/engineering treatment in photonics.
  • Mathematical physics (the methods themselves — group theory, differential geometry, functional analysis, PDE theory) is covered in the Math-and-Compute/Math/ library and cross-linked from the relevant notes rather than duplicated here.
  • Medical physics, econophysics, atmospheric physics are applied/interdisciplinary and live with their host domains (nuclear-engineering, Society/, ClimateScience); pointers appear from the relevant Tier-1 notes.

Adjacent libraries