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Absorbing boundaries are frequently employed in real-time propagation of the Schr\"odinger equation to remove spurious reflections and efficiently emulate outgoing boundary conditions. These conditions are a fundamental ingredient for an…
Expressing physics problems in the form of a mathematical model is one of the most important stages in the problem-solving process. Particularly in algebraic symbolization, understanding the meanings of signs and being able to manipulate…
We study systems containing electrons and nuclei. Based on the fact that the thermodynamic limit exists for systems with Dirichlet boundary conditions, we prove that the same limit is obtained if one imposes other boundary conditions such…
How students use mathematics in their physics classes has been studied extensively in the physics education literature. In addition to specific mathematical methods in specific physics contexts, possible effects of more general "cultural"…
We analyze the quantum dynamics of a non-relativistic particle moving in a bounded domain of physical space, when the boundary conditions are rapidly changed. In general, this yields new boundary conditions, via a dynamical composition law…
Quantum electrodynamics near a boundary is investigated by considering the inertial mass shift of an electron near a dielectric or conducting surface. We show that in all tractable cases the shift can be written in terms of integrals over…
Many prominent lines of research on student's reasoning and conceptual change within learning sciences and physics education research have not attended to the role of learners' affect or emotions in the dynamics of their conceptual…
The problem of choice of boundary conditions are discussed for the case of numerical integration of the shallow water equations on a substantially irregular relief. In modeling of unsteady surface water flows has a dynamic boundary…
The possibility of treating boundary conditions in terms of a bilocal dynamical field is formalized in terms of a boundary action. This allows for a simple path-integral perturbation theory approach to physical effects such as radiation…
Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing rather than a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. Using the theoretical lens of epistemological framing,…
The present technical notes offer a brief summary of the essential points of electromagnetism at the undergraduate physics level. Some problems are presented at the end of each section; those with solutions are marked with an asterisk.
An important goal of graduate physics core courses is to help students develop expertise in problem solving and improve their reasoning and meta-cognitive skills. We explore the conceptual difficulties of physics graduate students by…
This work examines student meaning-making in undergraduate physics problem-solving. We use a social semiotic perspective to sketch a theoretical framework. The social semiotic approach focuses on all types of meaning-making practices that…
We discuss a case study of the influence of epistemology on learning for a student in an introductory college physics course. An analysis of videotaped class work, written work, and interviews indicates that many of the student's…
Quantum mechanics is challenging even for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Dirac notation is a convenient notation used extensively in quantum mechanics. We have been investigating the difficulties that the advanced…
We provide a derivation of several classes of boundary conditions for fluids of Korteweg-type using a simple and transparent thermodynamic approach that automatically guarentees that the derived boundary conditions are compatible with the…
We investigated the common difficulties that students have with concepts related to rotational and rolling motion covered in the introductory physics courses. We compared the performance of calculus- and algebra-based introductory physics…
Historically, physics has been a predominantly male field, with previous literature showing there is little diversity amongst U.S. physics students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Recent research indicates that the lack of…
An analysis of barriers to women's participation in physics education is presented. It is expected that in undergraduate physics the most common situation for a women is that she is cisgender and one of a numerical minority in the…
Although most teachers acknowledge the importance of taking investigative approached in students' science learning experiences, implementing them in high-school classes can be challenging for teachers. In this work, we analyzed data from…