Welcome to the canvas information page for the courses

FYTK03, FYTM05, FYTM06

given by the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics.

Contents

The following webpage contains generic information regarding the degree project courses FYTK03 and FYTM05-06 at the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physic. The course calendar and course stream on this page are not active.

General information

Semester and study period: Running every semester and study period
Level: bachelor for FYTK03 and master for FYTM05 and FYTM06
Language: English
Form of teaching: Individual supervision and a few mandatory course components (see below)
Assessment: Written report, work progress assessment, presentation
Grading scale: U/G/VG
Course plans:
FYTK03 (Swedish original), FYTK03 (English translation)
FYTM05 (Swedish original), FYTM05 (English translation)
FYTM06 (Swedish original), FYTM06 (English translation)
A list with (primarily) potential bachelor projects is available here. Master students may be inspired by this list, but are encouraged to talk to potential supervisors independently.
Complementary information (examples of previous thesis, etc) is found at the web page of the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics: degree projects

Entry requirements FYTK03

For admission to the course, 135 credits in science studies is required, out of which 90 credits in physics and 45 credits in mathematics according to the course requirements in the current program syllabus for a Bachelor of Science in Physics as well as English 6/B. Of the 90 credits in physics at least 15 credits has to be in theoretical physics.

Entry requirements FYTM05

For admission to the course it is required to have knowledge equivalent to English 6/B, a Bachelor's degree in physics and in addition 45 credits of physics at an advanced level including knowledge equivalent
to: FYSN21, Quantum physics in research and society, 7.5 credits, FYSN17, Quantum mechanics, 7.5 credits and one of the course packages for biological physics or theoretical physics in accordance with the course requirements in the current program syllabus for a Master of Science in Physics. For a degree project in theoretical particle physics knowledge corresponding to FYTN18, Theoretical particle physics, 7.5 credits is also required.

Entry requirements FYTM06

For admission to the course it is required to have knowledge equivalent to English 6/B, a Bachelor's degree in physics and in addition 45 credits of physics at an advanced level including knowledge equivalent to: FYSN21, Quantum physics in research and society, 7.5 credits, FYSN17, Quantum mechanics, 7.5 credits and one of the course packages for biological physics or theoretical physics in accordance with the course requirements in the current program syllabus for a Master of Science in Physics. For a degree project in theoretical particle physics knowledge corresponding to FYTN18, Theoretical particle physics, 7.5 credits is also required.

Teachers

Victor Olariu, victor.olariu@thep.lu.se
(Responsible for computational biology and biological physics projects)
Christian Bierlich, christian.bierlich@thep.lu.se
(Responsible for theoretical particle physics bachelor projects)
Roman Pasechnik roman.pasechnik@thep.lu.se
(Responsible for theoretical particle physics master projects)

Schedule

There is a mandatory introduction meeting, and a few additional mandatory course components (see below), but mostly you and your supervisor decide when to meet.

Introductory Meetings

You must attend the compulsory introduction meeting, for projects starting during the fall 2022, Monday, August 29th, 2.15 pm, in the Theory Lab. You must also attend the general physics introduction meeting.

Application

Through antagning.se

Project timeline

Below follows information, roughly ordered in time, about your thesis project.

At the start of the course

You must attend the introduction meetings, see above. Slides from the fall 2022 meeting are available here. During these meetings, you will be informed about the compulsory modules

Academic Writing and Popular Science Writing
Library Resources

which, besides your thesis work, must be completed during the degree project, see further information here. (Master students who did their bachelor project in Lund after 2018 are not required to retake these modules.)

You must also sign a registration form with your supervisor (and reviewer) during the first two weeks and provide a one-page project plan for your project. These are to be sent to the appropriate course responsible person (see above) at latest two weeks after the introductory meeting. Use the above registration form, not the Physics Department form.

Further information will be given during the introductory meeting.

Halfway through

We will have a midterm meeting (you, the course responsible and your supervisor) halfway through your thesis work to assess your progress. At this meeting we will discuss your progress and try to assess if you can complete the thesis on time. For master projects there will also be a compulsory half-time presentation in connection with the half-time meeting.

Thesis

The general guidelines for writing the thesis are:

The thesis should be written in the style of a scientific paper.
The target audience should be a peer student who has completed the Theoretical Particle Physics course (FYTN04) or the Theoretical Biophysics course (FYTN05). If your work is about general relativity, you may also assume that the reader has taken the General Relativity course (FYTN08), and for master theses you may assume Quantum Field Theory (FYTN10) if needed.
A well-written, concise thesis is valued higher than a lengthy, unpolished thesis.
Using the standard template , your thesis must not significantly exceed 25 pages (bachelor), 40 pages (30 hp master), 50 pages (60 hp master). Do not change the length of your thesis by changing font or margin width.

Here you can find a few recommended books for how write scientific text.

The thesis must be submitted before the deadline (approximately two weeks before the oral presentation) to the course responsible and the thesis reviewer. For projects ending during the autumn semester 2022 the deadline is January 2, 2023, at 5pm. For projects ending during the spring semester 2023 the deadline is May 16 at 5pm. The report should be sent electronically to the reviewer and course responsible. Before handing in the thesis, you must have iterated the text with your supervisor a few times. Your supervisor must approve of the thesis before sending it to the reviewer/course responsible. You get an LU-TP number (to be added to the front page of your thesis) by inserting your abstract into the binder "LU-TP 2020-" and then adding 1 to the previous LU-TP number. The binder is found in the bookshelf just outside the HUB lecture room. You may take the number yourself, ask your supervisor, delay getting one until after the presentation or (if this does not work out), ask the course responsible.

Oral Presentation

Oral presentations for projects ending during the spring are preliminarily scheduled for May 30th-June 3rd 2022. You should have discussed and rehearsed your oral presentation with your supervisor in good time before the presentation. The length of the thesis presentation should be:

B.Sc.: 20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes questions
M.Sc., 30 hp (FYTM05): 30 minutes presentation + 15 minutes questions
M.Sc., 60 hp (FYTM06): 40 minutes presentation + 15 minutes questions
Master thesis half-time presentation: 20 minutes

For the oral presentation, we assess the time planning, presentation structure, communication skills and the ability to answer questions.

Some students have found this latex beamer template useful (here on overleaf) . (This link is here upon request from students.. Please let us know of potential issues.)

What happens after the oral presentation

The reviewer, course responsible and the supervisor will meet (typically the same day as the presentation) and decide on a grade based on:

Scientific work (independence and commitment, work effort and time planning, quality)
Written report (structure, understanding, clarity, language and style)
Oral presentation (time planning, structure, communication, ability to answer questions)

The grading guidelines distributed to the reviewers and examiners can be found here.

You will also get feedback on your report by the reviewer and the course responsible. Based on this feedback you will need to rewrite your thesis, which will then need to be approved by the reviewer. Once your thesis is approved, you should upload it to LUP (Lund University Publications Student Papers) along with your abstract and popular science description. Once the thesis is uploaded, the final approval is made by the course responsible, who at this stage also takes care that your grade is registered in LADOK and that your thesis is made public in LUP.