Instructor: Josh Erlich
Small Hall rm 332B
Office Phone: 757-221-3763
Email: jxerli@wm.edu
Course requirements and grade:
Grade: A 93-100, A- 88-93, B+ 83-88, B 78-83, B- 73-78, C+ 68-73, C 63-68, C- 58-63, D+ 53-58, D 48-53, D- 43-48, F <43
Problem sets:
Problem sets will be assigned approximately weekly, and will generally be due on Tuesdays.
Reading material:
Lecture Notes:
| Lecture Notes 1: Why quantum mechanics? Photons, vector spaces |
| Lecture Notes 2: More about vector spaces, unitary and Hermitian operators, Hilbert spaces |
| Lecture Notes 3: Infinite-dimenional Hilbert Spaces |
| Lecture Notes 4: The postulates of Quantum Mechanics |
| Lecture Notes 5: Density matrix, spin-1/2 and two-state systems |
| Lecture Notes 6: General two-state systems, state oscillations |
| Lecture Notes 7: Entanglement; The momentim operator |
| Lecture Notes 8: Canonical quantization, position space, momentum space |
| Lecture Notes 9: Free particle, wavepackets, uncertainty |
| Lecture Notes 10: Uncertainty principles, 1D Schrodinger equation |
| Lecture Notes 11: Nodes of the wavefunction, 1D examples |
| Lecture Notes 12: Tunneling, delta function potential, continuity equation |
| Lecture Notes 13: Probability current, harmonic oscillator, raising and lowering operators |
| Lecture Notes 14: Nonconservative systems, Schrodinger and Heisenberg pictures |
| Lecture Notes 15: The Feynman path integral |
| Lecture Notes 16: Ehrenfest's Theorem |
| Lecture Notes 17: Angular momentum |
| Lecture Notes 18: Matrix representation of angular momentum, addition of angular momentum |
| Lecture Notes 19: Rotations and wave functions |
| Lecture Notes 20: Spin, L+S |
| Lecture Notes 21: Hydrogen-Like Atoms |
| Lecture Notes 22: Gauge invariance, The Aharonov-Bohm effect |
Problem Sets:
Problem sets will be posted on blackboard and will generally be due Thursdays.