Physics 622: Quantum Mechanics II

Spring 2016

Lectures:  Monday and Friday, 9:30-10:50 a.m. in Small 235

Instructor: Irina Novikova

 

 
Office: Small 251
 
E-mail: ixnovi[at]wm.edu

 

 
Office hours: Thursday 3.30 - 5.30 pm
 
Telephone: (757) 221-3693

 

Web-site: http://www.physics.wm.edu/~inovikova/phys622/phys622.htm

Grader: Henry Monge

 

 

 
Office hours (grading questions only): by appointment 
     E-mail: hjmonge[at]email.wm.edu
 

 

Textbook: the lectures will loosely follow Modern Quantum Mechanics, by J. J. Sakurai and J. Napolitano (2nd ed., 2011), and some homework problems will be assigned from this textbook. However, there are many quantum mechanics textbooks, so I encourage you to look around if you want additional materials.

Homework:  Homework assignments will be handed out once a week. Problem sets should be returned on the due date (usually a week later). Late submissions are not accepted unless you secured my permission in advance. While you may discuss the homework problems with other students, the final write-up must be your own work.

Grading:

Homework

40%

Midterm test

20%

Final exam

40%

Tentative course schedule

Approximation methods (Chapter 5)

Time-Independent and time-dependent perturbation theory and their application for atomic physics (Zeeman and Stark effects, fine and hyperfine structure, light-atom interactions, atomic transitions)  

Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics (Chapters 4, 7)

Discrete symmetries, parity and time-reversal symmetries, identical particles, bosons and fermions, multi-electron atoms, quantization of the electromagnetic field

Scattering Theory (Chapter 6)

Born approximation, partial waves, scattering length

Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (Chapter 8)

The Dirac equation and its properties