UPSC Physics

Syllabus and Exam Pattern

UPSC Physics Syllabus for IAS Exam
Initial preparation of the exam starts with a thorough knowledge of the syllabus and the exam pattern.
Mentioned below is the UPSC physics syllabus for optional paper 1 and paper 2 of IAS mains:

UPSC Physics Syllabus for Optional Paper I

TOPIC SUB-TOPIC

Classical Mechanics  Particle dynamics: Centre of mass and laboratory

coordinates, conservation of linear and angular momentum
 The rocket equation. Rutherford scattering, Galilean
transformation, inertial and non-inertial frames
 Rotating frames, centrifugal and Coriolis forces, Foucault
pendulum
 System of particles: Constraints, degrees of freedom,
generalised coordinates and momenta
 Lagrange's equation and applications to the linear harmonic
oscillator, simple pendulum and central force problems
 Cyclic coordinates, Hamiltonian Lagrange's equation from
Hamilton's principle
 Rigid body dynamics: Eulerian angles, inertia tensor, principal
moments of inertia. Euler's equation of motion of a rigid body,
the force-free motion of a rigid body. Gyroscope

Special Relativity,  Special Relativity: Michelson-Morley experiment and its

Waves & Geometrical implications
Optics  Lorentz transformations- length contraction, time dilation, the
addition of velocities, aberration and Doppler effect, mass-
energy relation, simple applications to a decay process
 Minkowski diagram, four-dimensional momentum vector.
Covariance of equations of physics
 Waves: 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
 Geometrical Optics: 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

Physical Optics  Interference: Interference of light-Young's experiment,

Newton's rings, interference by thin films, Michelson
interferometer.
 Multiple beam interference and Fabry-Perot interferometer.
Holography and simple applications
 Diffraction: Fraunhofer diffraction-single slit, double slit,
diffraction grating, resolving power. Fresnel diffraction: - half-
period zones and zones plates
 Fresnel integrals. Application of Cornu's spiral to the analysis
 of diffraction at a straight edge and by a long narrow slit.
Diffraction by a circular aperture and the Airy pattern
 Polarisation and Modern Optics: Production and detection of
linearly and circularly polarised light. Double refraction, a
quarter-wave plate
 Optical activity. Principles of fibre optics attenuation; pulse
dispersion in step-index and parabolic index fibres; material
dispersion, single-mode fibres. Lasers
 Einstein A and B coefficients. Ruby and He-Ne lasers.
Characteristics of laser light-spatial and temporal coherence.
Focussing of laser beams. Three-level scheme for laser
operation.

Electricity and  Electrostatics and Magnetostatics: Laplace ad Poisson

Magnetism equations in electrostatics and their applications
 The energy of a system of charges, the multipole expansion
of scalar potential. Method of images and their 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
 Current Electricity: 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. LR CR and LCR circuits- series and parallel
resonance. Quality factor. Principal of transformer

Electromagnetic  Electromagnetic Theory: Displacement current and Maxwell's

Theory & Black Body equations. Wave equations in vacuum, Poynting theorem
Radiation  Vector and scalar potentials. Gauge invariance, Lorentz and
Coulomb gauges. Electromagnetic field tensor, the
covariance of Maxwell's equations
 Wave equations in isotropic dielectrics, reflection and
refraction at the boundary of two dielectrics. Fresnel's
relations
 Normal and anomalous dispersion. Rayleigh scattering.
Blackbody radiation: Black body radiation ad Planck radiation
law- Stefan-Boltzmann law
 Wien displacement law and Rayleigh-Jeans law. Planck
mass, Planck length, Planck time, Planck temperature and
Planck energy

Thermal and  Thermodynamics: Laws of thermodynamics, reversible and

Statistical Physics irreversible processes, entropy. Isothermal, adiabatic,
isobaric, isochoric processes and entropy change
 Otto and Diesel engines, Gibbs' phase rule and chemical
potential. Vander 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 applications.
 Clausius- Clapeyron equation. Adiabatic demagnetisation,
Joule-Kelvin effect and liquefaction of gases Statistical
Physics: Saha ionization formula. Bose-Einstein condensation
 Thermodynamic behaviour of an ideal Fermi gas,
Chandrasekhar limit, elementary ideas about neutron stars
and pulsars
 Brownian motion as a random walk, diffusion process.
Concept of negative temperatures.

UPSC Physics Syllabus for Optional Paper-II

Quantum  Wave-particle duality. Schroedinger equation and expectation

Mechanics I values. Uncertainty principle.
 Solutions of the one-dimensional Schroedinger equation-free
particle (Gaussian wave-packet), particle in a box, particle in a
finite well, linear harmonic oscillator
 Reflection and transmission by a potential step and by a
rectangular barrier. Use of WKB formula for the lifetime
calculation in the alpha-decay problem.

Quantum  Quantum Mechanics II: Particle in a three-dimensional box, the

Mechanics II & density of states, free electron theory of metals
Atomic Physics  The angular momentum problem. The hydrogen atom. The spin
half problem and properties of Pauli spin matrices
 Atomic Physics: Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron spin, the fine
structure of hydrogen atoms. L-S coupling, J-J coupling
 Spectroscopic notation of atomic states. Zeeman effect. Frank-
Condon principle and applications.

Molecular Physics  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. Elementary ideas
about Lamb shift and its significance.

Nuclear Physics  Basic nuclear properties-size, binding energy, angular

momentum, parity, magnetic moment. Semi-empirical mass
formula and applications
 Mass parabolas. The 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.

Particle Physics &  Particle Physics: Classification of elementary particles and their
Solid State interactions. Conservation laws. Quark structure of hadrons
Physics  Field quanta of electroweak and strong interactions. Elementary
ideas about Unification of Forces. Physics of neutrinos
 Solid State Physics: Cubic crystal structure. Band theory of
solids- conductors, insulators and semiconductors. Elements of
superconductivity, Meissner effect, Josephson junctions and
applications.
 Elementary ideas about high-temperature superconductivity.

Electronics  Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors-p-np and np-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

UPSC Physics Exam Pattern 2022

The UPSC exam has three stages of examination viz. prelims, mains and interview. The UPSC IAS
mains exam consists of 9 papers, out of which 2 are for optional subjects. The candidates are given a
choice of 48 optional subjects to choose from. Here are the details about the UPSC physics exam
pattern for IAS mains:

 There will be 2 papers for the physics optional subject in UPSC IAS Mains.
 Each paper would comprise 250 marks, which makes it 500 marks in total.
 The time duration to attempt the UPSC physics paper is 3 hours.
 Each paper would have objective answer type questions.
 There is no negative marking.

Sr. No. IAS Mains Papers Subject Marks

1. Paper VI Optional Subject Paper-I 250

2. Paper VII Optional Subject Paper-II 250

TOTAL 500

Time Duration 3 hours