General entry requirements

A level:

• A*AA to include A in Mathematics (or Further Mathematics) and Physics

IB:

• 38 to include 6 in Higher Level Mathematics (‘Analysis and Approaches’ only) and Physics

BTEC:

• We welcome applications from students taking a BTEC qualification alongside A level Maths and Physics
• We may consider a BTEC qualification in a relevant Science/Engineering subject alongside A level Maths only on an individual basis

Additional requirements:

You will also need to meet our English Language requirements.

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International Students

We welcome applications from students with other internationally recognised qualifications.

Find out more about international entry requirements.

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Contextual data and differential offers

Warwick may make differential offers to students in a number of circumstances. These include students participating in the Realising Opportunities programme, or who meet two of the contextual data criteria. Differential offers will be one or two grades below Warwick’s standard offer (to a minimum of BBB).

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Warwick International Foundation Programme (IFP)

All students who successfully complete the Warwick IFP and apply to Warwick through UCAS will receive a guaranteed conditional offer for a related undergraduate programme (selected courses only).

Find out more about standard offers and conditions for the IFP.

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Taking a gap year

Applications for deferred entry welcomed.

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Interviews

We do not typically interview applicants. Offers are made based on your UCAS form which includes predicted and actual grades, your personal statement and school reference.

Year One

Mathematics for Physicists

All scientists use mathematics to state the basic laws and to analyse quantitatively and rigorously their consequences. The module introduces you to concepts and techniques which will be assumed by future modules. These include: complex numbers, functions of a continuous real variable, integration, functions of more than one variable and multiple integration. You will revise relevant parts of the A-level syllabus, to cover the mathematical knowledge to undertake first year physics modules, and to prepare you for mathematics and physics modules in subsequent years.

Classical Mechanics and Special Relativity

You will study Newtonian mechanics emphasizing the conservation laws inherent in the theory. These have a wider domain of applicability than classical mechanics (for example they also apply in quantum mechanics). You will also look at the classical mechanics of oscillations and of rotating bodies. It then explains why the failure to find the ether was such an important experimental result and how Einstein constructed his theory of special relativity. You will cover some of the consequences of the theory for classical mechanics and some of the predictions it makes, including: the relation between mass and energy, length-contraction, time-dilation and the twin paradox.

Physics Foundations

You will look at dimensional analysis, matter and waves. Often the qualitative features of systems can be understood (at least partially) by thinking about which quantities in a problem are allowed to depend on each other on dimensional grounds. Thermodynamics is the study of heat transfers and how they can lead to useful work. Even though the results are universal, the simplest way to introduce this topic to you is via the ideal gas, whose properties are discussed and derived in some detail. You will also cover waves. Waves are time-dependent variations about some time-independent (often equilibrium) state. You will revise the relation between the wavelength, frequency and velocity and the definition of the amplitude and phase of a wave.

Astrophysics Laboratory I

The Laboratory introduces experimental science. There are experiments in physics and astronomy. The experiments can help give a different and more 'tangible' perspective on material treated theoretically in lectures and teach the skills required for successful laboratory work. These include how to work with apparatus, how to keep a laboratory notebook, how to handle data and quantify errors and how to write scientific reports. The experiments provide experience in using a range of equipment. The module also asks you to think critically and solve problems.

Electricity and Magnetism

You will largely be concerned with the great developments in electricity and magnetism, which took place during the nineteenth century. The origins and properties of electric and magnetic fields in free space, and in materials, are tested in some detail and all the basic levels up to, but not including, Maxwell's equations are considered. In addition, the module deals with both dc and ac circuit theory including the use of complex impedance. You will be introduced to the properties of electrostatic and magnetic fields, and their interaction with dielectrics, conductors and magnetic materials.

Electronics Workshop

Electronic instrumentation is widely used in virtually all areas of experimental physics. Whilst it is not essential for all experimental physicists to know, for example, how to make a low noise amplifier, it is extremely useful for them to have some knowledge of electronics. This workshop introduce some of the basic electronics which are used regularly by physicists.

Physics Programming Workshop

You will be introduced to the Python programming language in this module. It is quick to learn and encourages good programming style. Python is an interpreted language, which makes it flexible and easy to share. It allows easy interfacing with modules, which have been compiled from C or Fortran sources. It is widely used throughout physics and there are many downloadable free-to-user codes available. You will also look at the visualisation of data. You will be introduced to scientific programming with the help of the Python programming language, a language widely used by physicists.

Introduction to Astronomy

The Universe contains a bewildering variety of objects - black holes, red giants, white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, gamma-ray bursts and globular clusters. You will study how, with the application of physics, we have come to know their distances, sizes, masses and natures. The module starts with the Sun and planets and moves on to the Universe as a whole.

Quantum Phenomena

This module explains how classical physics is unable to explain the properties of light, electrons and atoms. (Theories in physics, which make no reference to quantum theory, are usually called classical theories.) It covers the most important contributions to the development of quantum physics including: wave-particle 'duality', de Broglie's relation and the Schrodinger equation. It also looks at applications of quantum theory to describe elementary particles: their classification by symmetry, how this allows us to interpret simple reactions between particles and how elementary particles interact with matter.

Key Skills for Physics

This module develops experimental skills in a range of areas and includes the design and testing of a functional electronic circuit, The module also introduces the concepts involved in controlling an experiment using a microcomputer. The module explores information retrieval and evaluation, and the oral and written presentation of scientific material.

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Year Two

Electromagnetic Theory and Optics

You will develop the ideas of first year electricity and magnetism into Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. Maxwell's equations pulled the various laws of electricity and magnetism (Faraday's law, Ampere's law, Lenz's law, Gauss's law) into one unified and elegant theory. The module shows you that Maxwell's equations in free space have time-dependent solutions, which turn out to be the familiar electromagnetic waves (light, radio waves, X-rays, etc.), and studies their behaviour at material boundaries (Fresnel Equations). You will also cover the basics of optical instruments and light sources.

Mathematical Methods of Physicists III

You will study the calculus of variations and complex variables. The calculus of variations is concerned with the minimisation of integrals over sets of differentiable functions. Such integrals crop up in many contexts. For example, the ground state wavefunction of a quantum system minimises the expectation value of the energy. The classical equations of motion for both particles and fields can often be obtained by minimising what is called the action functional (which may be familiar if you took Hamiltonian Mechanics). Requiring functions of complex variables to be analytic (differentiable with respect to their complex argument in some domain) turns out to constrain such functions very strongly. As the module shows: only the constant function is differentiable everywhere, analytic functions are actually equal to their Taylor series and not just approximated by them, a function that is once differentiable is differentiable infinitely many times. Complex differentiable functions are clean, they are fun and they are important in physics. For example, response functions like the dielectric response function are analytic functions with the domain, in which the function is analytic, being related to causality.

Quantum Mechanics and its Applications

In the first part of this module you will use ideas, introduced in the first year module, to explore atomic structure. You will discuss the time-independent and the time-dependent Schrödinger equations for spherically symmetric and harmonic potentials, angular momentum and hydrogenic atoms. The second half of the module looks at many-particle systems and aspects of the Standard Model of particle physics. It introduces the quantum mechanics of free fermions and discusses how it accounts for the conductivity and heat capacity of metals and the state of electrons in white dwarf stars.

Thermal Physics II

Any macroscopic object we meet contains a large number of particles, each of which moves according to the laws of mechanics (which can be classical or quantum). Yet, we can often ignore the details of this microscopic motion and use a few average quantities such as temperature and pressure to describe and predict the behaviour of the object. Why we can do this, when we can do this and how to do it are the subject of this module. The most important idea in the field is due to Boltzmann, who identified the connection between entropy and disorder. The module shows you how the structure of equilibrium thermodynamics follows from Boltzmann's definition of the entropy and shows you how, in principle, any observable equilibrium quantity can be computed.

Astrophysics Laboratory II and Skills

This module develops experimental skills in a range of areas of physics and astrophysics. The module introduces the concepts involved in controlling remote instruments using computers and the collection and analysis of astrophysical data. The module explores information retrieval and evaluation, and the oral and written presentation of scientific material.

Stars

People have been studying stars for as long as anything else in science. Yet, the subject is advancing faster now than almost every other branch of physics. With the arrival of space-based instruments, the prospects are that the field will continue to advance and that some of the most exciting discoveries reported in physics during our lifetimes will be in astrophysics. In this module, you will study the physics of stars and learn how we explain their behaviour. The module covers the main classifications of stars by size, age and distance from the earth and the relationships between them.

The Solar System

The study of the Solar System has been one of the most important in the history of physics with ramifications beyond science - Galileo was convicted of heresy for arguing that the earth moved round the Sun. Newton developed his theory of gravitation to explain Kepler's observations of the Solar System planets and effectively established what we now call the scientific method. In this module, we will introduce some of the intriguing phenomena observed in our Solar System. Questions we will touch on include: How does the Sun work? How do planets move and form? Do they have atmospheres? While the answers to some of these questions are complicated and still not completely known, we will construct convincing, qualitatively correct and appealing explanations of many of these phenomena using physics studied in the first year.

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Year Three

Astrophysics Project

The project will provide you with experience of working on an extended project in astrophysics in a research environment. You will normally work in pairs. Through discussions with your supervisor, you will establish a plan of work which you will frequently review as you progress. In general, the project will not be closely prescribed and will contain an investigative element.

Quantum Physics of Atoms

The basic principles of quantum mechanics are applied to a range of problems in atomic physics. The intrinsic property of spin is introduced and its relation to the indistinguishability of identical particles in quantum mechanics discussed. Perturbation theory and variational methods are described and applied to several problems. The hydrogen and helium atoms are analysed and the ideas that come out from this work are used to obtain a good qualitative understanding of the periodic table. In this module, you will develop the ideas of quantum theory and apply these to atomic physics.

Cosmology

Questions about the origin of the Universe, where it is going and how it may get there are the domain of cosmology. In this module, we will ask whether the Universe will continue to expand or ultimately contract. Relevant experimental data include those on the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, the distribution of galaxies and the distribution of mass in the Universe. Starting from fundamental observations, such as that the night sky is dark and, by appealing to principles from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, you will develop a description of the Universe and the Big Bang Model.

Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars

In this module, you study the compact objects - white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes (BH) - that can form when burnt out stars collapse under their own gravity. The extreme conditions in their neighbourhood mean that they affect strongly other objects and even the structure of the space-time around them. Compact objects can accrete material from surrounding gases and nearby stars. In the case of BHs this can lead to the supermassive BHs thought to be at the centre of most galaxies. In the most extreme events (mergers of these objects), the gravitational waves (GW) that are emitted are now beginning to be detected on earth (the first GW detection was reported in 2015 almost exactly 100 years after their prediction by Einstein).

Communicating Science

Employers look for many things in would-be employees. Sometimes they will be looking for specific knowledge, but often they will be more interested in general skills, frequently referred to as transferable skills. One such transferable skill is the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. Over the past two years you may have had experience in writing for an academic audience in the form of your laboratory reports. The aim of this module is to introduce you to the different approaches required to write for other audiences. This module will provide you with experience in presenting technical material in different formats to a variety of audiences.

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Examples of optional modules/options for current students

• Computational Physics
• Geophysics
• Hamiltonian Mechanics
• Nuclear Physics
• Physics of Electrical Power Generation
• Physics of Fluids
• Planets, Exoplanets and Life
• Solar Magnetohydrodynamics

Tuition fees

Find out more about fees and funding.

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Additional course costs

There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course. Students who choose to complete a work placement or study abroad will pay reduced tuition fees for their third year.

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Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship 2021

We believe there should be no barrier to talent. That's why we are committed to offering a scholarship that makes it easier for gifted, ambitious international learners to pursue their academic interests at one of the UK's most prestigious universities. This new scheme will offer international fee-paying students 250 tuition fee discounts ranging from full fees to awards of £13,000 to £2,000 for the full duration of your Undergraduate degree course.

Find out more about the Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship 2021

Your career

Graduates from this course have gone on to work for employers including:

• Deloitte Digital
• Brunei Shell Petroleum
• British Red Cross
• EDF Energy
• Civil Service
• Deutsche Bank

They have pursued roles such as:

• Physical scientists
• Finance and investment analysts
• Programmers and software development professionals
• Graphic designers
• Researchers

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Helping you find the right career

Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant. They offer impartial advice and guidance together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:

• Career options with a Physics Degree
• Careers in Science
• Warwick careers fairs throughout the year
• Physics Alumni Evening
• Careers and Employer networking event for Physics students

Discover more about careers support at Warwick.