PHYS 684: Numerical Quantum Optics: Computer Resources

This document will be updated throughout the course.

Some of the Numerical Recipes books are posted online free. If you do any numerical work, these books are essential (i.e., you should buy a paper copy). Note that although there is a Fortran 90 version, it is essentially useless; you should pick either the C or FORTRAN 77 version. Note also that I don't necessarily recommend using their software, as it can be cryptic and not necessarily optimized for speed (see in particular these criticisms). However, the background material covers many subjects and almost always a good starting point (though before coding you should usually check for more modern algorithms).
A source of free, high-quality numerical software is the Netlib repository, an online collection of mathematical software and related information.

Matt Choptuik has an excellent, comprehensive tutorial on using unix. You should go through this if you haven't used unix before, and you'll probably pick up some new tricks even if you haven't. If you're starting out for the first time, read up on the following topics and commands:
1. Files and directories
2. Commands overview
3. man, ls, rm, cp, and mv (and how to make the last three safe commands)
4. ssh and scp
Here is another good introduction to unix (in particular, Linux).
You will also need a way to generate and modify text files. Novice users may want to start with pico, which you can invoke as
```
pico
```
to start a new file, or
```
pico <filename>
```
to edit an existing file. Once in pico, everything should be self-explanatory. However, you should quickly “graduate” to a more sophisticated editor such as emacs (or xemacs) or vi (for the truly brave). Since these editors are quite powerful, you should google for tutorials and references on them.
If at any time you want a hands-on tutorial on unix or using the lab/cluster computers, be sure to arrange a time with the instructor for this.