Physics Optional Syllabus for Civil Service Examination

1. Mechanics & Special RelativityBrowse Mechanics PYQs →

• Laws of motion; conservation of energy and momentum, applications to rotating frames, centripetal and Coriolis accelerations;
• Motion under a central force; Conservation of angular momentum, Kepler’s laws;
• Fields and potentials; Gravitational field and potential due to spherical bodies, Gauss and Poisson equations, gravitational self-energy;
• Two-body problem; Reduced mass; Rutherford scattering; Centre of mass and laboratory reference frames.

• System of particles; Centre of mass, angular momentum, equations of motion; Conservation theorems for energy, momentum and angular momentum; Elastic and inelastic collisions;
• Rigid Body; Degrees of freedom, Euler’s theorem, angular velocity, angular momentum, moments of inertia, theorems of parallel and perpendicular axes, equation of motion for rotation;
• Molecular rotations (as rigid bodies); Di and tri-atomic molecules; Precessional motion; top, gyroscope.

• Elasticity, Hooke’s law and elastic constants of isotropic solids and their inter-relation;
• Streamline (Laminar) flow, viscosity, Poiseuille’s equation, Bernoulli’s equation, Stokes’ law and applications.

• Michelson-Morley experiment and its implications; Lorentz transformations length contraction, time dilation, addition of relativistic velocities, aberration and Doppler effect, mass-energy relation, simple applications to a decay process.
• Four dimensional momentum vector; Covariance of equations of physics.

2. Waves and OpticsBrowse Optics PYQs →

• 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.

• Laws of reflection and refraction from Fermat’s principle;
• Matrix method in paraxial optic-thin lens formula, nodal planes, system of two thin lenses, chromatic and spherical aberrations.

• Interference of light - Young’s experiment, Newton’s rings, interference by thin films, Michelson interferometer;
• Multiple beam interference and Fabry Perot interferometer.

• Fraunhofer diffraction single slit, double slit, diffraction grating, resolving power;
• Diffraction by a circular aperture and the Airy pattern;
• Fresnel diffraction: half-period zones and zone plates, circular aperture.

• Production and detection of linearly and circularly polarized light; Double refraction, quarter wave plate; Optical activity;
• Principles of fibre optics, attenuation; Pulse dispersion in step index and parabolic index fibres; Material dispersion, single mode fibers;
• Lasers-Einstein A and B coefficients. Ruby and He-Ne lasers. Characteristics of laser light-spatial and temporal coherence; Focusing of laser beams. Three-level scheme for laser operation; Holography and simple applications.

3. Electricity and MagnetismBrowse Electricity PYQs →

• Laplace and Poisson equations in electrostatics and their applications; Energy of a system of charges, multipole expansion of scalar potential;
• Method of images and its 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 magnetised sphere; Ferromagnetic materials, hysteresis, energy loss.

• Kirchhoff’s laws and their applications. Biot-Savart law, Ampere’s law, Faraday’s law, Lenz’ law. Self-and mutual-inductances;
• Mean and rms values in AC circuits; DC and AC circuits with R, L and C components; Series and parallel resonance; Quality factor; Principle of transformer.

4. Electromagnetic Waves and Blackbody RadiationBrowse EM Waves PYQs →

• Displacement current and Maxwell’s equations; Wave equations in vacuum, Poynting theorem; Vector and scalar potentials;
• Electromagnetic field tensor, covariance of Maxwell’s equations;
• Wave equations in isotropic dielectrics, reflection and refraction at the boundary of two dielectrics; Fresnel’s relations; Total internal reflection;
• Normal and anomalous dispersion; Rayleigh scattering;
• Blackbody radiation and Planck’s radiation law - Stefan-Boltzmann law, Wien’s displacement law and Rayleigh-Jeans law.

5. Thermal and Statistical PhysicsBrowse Thermal PYQs →

• Laws of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, entropy; Isothermal, adiabatic, isobaric, isochoric processes and entropy changes;
• 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 application;
• Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Adiabatic demagnetisation, Joule-Kelvin effect and liquefaction of gases.

• Macro and micro states, statistical distributions, Maxwell-Boltzmann, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac Distributions, applications to specific heat of gases and blackbody radiation;
• Concept of negative temperatures.

1. Quantum MechanicsBrowse Quantum PYQs →

• Wave-particle duality; Schroedinger equation and expectation values; Uncertainty principle;
• Solutions of the one-dimensional Schroedinger equation for free particle (Gaussian wave-packet), particle in a box, particle in a finite well, linear harmonic oscillator;
• Reflection and transmission by a step potential and by a rectangular barrier;
• Particle in a three dimensional box, density of states, free electron theory of metals;
• Angular momentum; Hydrogen atom; Spin half particles, properties of Pauli spin matrices.

2. Atomic and Molecular PhysicsBrowse Atomic PYQs →

• Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron spin, fine structure of hydrogen atom; L-S coupling, J-J coupling: Spectroscopic notation of atomic states; Zeeman effect;
• Franck-Condon principle and applications; 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 and EPR; Elementary ideas about Lamb shift and its significance.

3. Nuclear and Particle PhysicsBrowse Nuclear PYQs →

• Basic nuclear properties - size, binding energy, angular momentum, parity, magnetic moment; Semi-empirical mass formula and applications. Mass parabolas;
• Ground state of a deuteron, magnetic moment and non-central forces; Meson 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;
• Classification of elementary particles and their interactions; Conservation laws; Quark structure of hadrons; Field quanta of electroweak and strong interactions; Elementary ideas about unification of forces; Physics of neutrinos.

4. Solid State Physics, Devices and ElectronicsBrowse Solid State PYQs →

• Crystalline and amorphous structure of matter; Different crystal systems, space groups; Methods of determination of crystal structure: X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies;
• Band theory of solids - conductors, insulators and semi-conductors; Thermal properties of solids, specific heat, Debye theory; Magnetism: dia, para and ferromagnetism;
• Elements of super-conductivity, Meissner effect, Josephson junctions and applications; Elementary ideas about high temperature super-conductivity;
• Intrinsic and extrinsic semi-conductors - p-n-p and n-p-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.