M.Sc Physics Entrance Exam conducted by NIT has questions mainly from subjects studied during undergraduate course. It covers areas like Electricity and Magnetism, Thermodynamics, Oscillations, Waves, Optics, Properties of Matter and Mathematical Methods. Candidates also need to study about Solid State Physics and Modern Physics.

Main topics in NIT M.Sc Physics Entrance Exam Syllabus

• Electricity and Magnetism
• Kinetic Theory and Thermodynamics
• Oscillations, Waves and Optics
• Mechanics and General Properties of Matter
• Solid State Physics, Devices and Electronics
• Mathematical Methods
• Modern Physics

Detailed Syllabus

Electricity and Magnetism

• Alternating currents
• Ampere’s law
• Biot-Savart law
• Capacitors
• Conductors
• Coulomb’s law
• Dielectric polarization
• Dielectrics
• Displacement current
• Electric field and potential
• Electrostatic boundary conditions
• Electrostatic energy
• Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction
• Gauss’s law
• Lorentz Force and motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields
• Maxwell’s equations and plane electromagnetic waves
• Poynting’s theorem
• Reflection and refraction at a dielectric interface
• Self and mutual inductance
• Simple DC and AC circuits with R, L and C components
• Solution of Laplace’s equation for simple cases
• Transmission and reflection coefficients
• Volume and surface charges

Kinetic Theory and Thermodynamics

• Reversible, irreversible and quasi-static processes
• Carnot cycle
• Elements of Kinetic theory of gases
• First law and its consequences
• Ideal gas
• Isothermal and adiabatic processes
• Laws of thermodynamics
• Maxwell’s thermodynamic relations and simple applications
• Mean free path
• Phase transitions and Clausius-Clapeyron equation
• Second law and entropy
• Specific heat of Mono-, di- and tri-atomic gases
• Thermodynamic potentials and their applications
• Van-der-Waals gas and equation of state
• Velocity distribution and Equipartition of energy
• Zeroeth law and concept of thermal equilibrium

Oscillations, Waves and Optics

• Damped and forced oscillators
• Differential equation for simple harmonic oscillator and its general solution
• Diffraction gratings
• Doppler Effect
• Double refraction and optical rotation
• Energy density and energy transmission in waves
• Fermat’s Principle
• Fraunhofer diffraction
• General theory of image formation
• Group velocity and phase velocity
• Interference of light, optical path retardation
• Linear, circular and elliptic polarization
• Rayleigh criterion and resolving power
• Resonance
• Sound waves in media
• Superposition of two or more simple harmonic oscillators
• Thick lens, thin lens and lens combinations
• Traveling and standing waves in one-dimension
• Wave equation

Mechanics and General Properties of Matter

• Bernoulli’s theorem
• Capillarity
• Centre of mass
• Centrifugal and Coriolis forces
• Conservation of energy
• Conservation of linear and angular momentum
• Conservative and non-conservative forces
• Elastic and inelastic collisions
• Elasticity
• Equation of continuity
• Equation of motion of the CM
• Euler’s equation
• Gravitational Law and field
• Hooke’s law and elastic constants of isotropic solid
• Kepler’s laws
• Kinematics of moving fluids
• Moments of Inertia and products of Inertia
• Motion under a central force
• Newton’s laws of motion and applications
• Principal moments and axes
• Rigid body motion, fixed axis rotations
• Rotation and translation
• Stress energy
• Surface tension and surface energy
• System of particles
• Uniformly rotating frame
• Variable mass systems
• Velocity and acceleration in Cartesian, polar and cylindrical coordinate systems
• Viscous fluids

Solid State Physics, Devices and Electronics

• Crystal structure
• Bravais lattices and basis
• Miller indices
• X-ray diffraction and Bragg’s law
• Einstein and Debye theory of specific heat
• Free electron theory of metals
• Fermi energy and density of states
• Origin of energy bands
• Concept of holes and effective mass
• Elementary ideas about dia-, para- and ferromagnetism
• Langevin’s theory of paramagnetism
• Curie’s law
• Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors
• Fermi level
• OR, AND, NOR and NAND gates
• Transistors
• P-N junctions
• Amplifier circuits with transistors
• Transistor circuits in CB, CE, CC modes
• Operational amplifiers

Mathematical Methods

• Algebra of complex numbers
• Calculus of single and multiple variables
• Divergence theorem
• First and linear second order differential equations
• Fourier series
• Green’s theorem
• Jacobian, imperfect and perfect differentials
• Matrices and determinants
• Multiple integrals
• Partial derivatives
• Stokes’ theorem
• Taylor expansion
• Vector algebra
• Vector Calculus

Modern Physics

• Blackbody radiation
• Bohr’s atomic model and X-rays
• Compton Effect
• Inertial frames and Galilean invariance
• Length contraction and time dilation
• Lorentz transformations
• Mass energy equivalence
• Photoelectric effect
• Postulates of special relativity
• Relativistic velocity addition theorem
• Uncertainty principle
• Wave-particle duality
• Schrödinger equation and its solution for one, two and three dimensional boxes
• Reflection and transmission at a step potential, tunnelling through a barrier
• Pauli Exclusion Principle
• Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics
• Structure of atomic nucleus, mass and binding energy
• Radioactivity and its applications
• Laws of radioactive decay
• Fission and fusion

Candidates can refer textbooks user during their undergraduate course to cover this vast syllabus. Textbooks which are exclusively meant for entrance exams for admission to various Physics courses can also help candidates to prepare well for objective model questions in this exam.