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Phys621 : (Fall 2006)
Quantum Mechanics
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Course description:
This course is for graduate students in Physics and related areas.
Its goal is to help students acquire an advanced foundation in quantum
mechanics.
It assumes undergraduate-level physics background, in particular
introductory quantum mechanics and basic mathematics.
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Preliminary course outline:
- Fundamental concepts. (13 lectures)
historical foundations; Schrodinger Equation and
wave function; Dirac notations;
measurements, observables, and the uncertainty relation;
eigenvalues and operators; spins; time evolution and
quantum dynamics; axioms of quantum theory; path integrals.
- Important ``first'' applications. (4 lectures)
simple Harmonic oscillator; one-dimensional systems; motion in an
electromagnetic field; geometrical phase(*)
- Angular momentum.
(7 lectures)
Angular momentum commutation relations, rotations; eigenvalues and
eigenstates of angular momentum; orbital angular momenta; addition of
angular momenta; central forces; hydrogen atom.
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Textbook: On reserve in Swem library
- "Modern Quantum Mechanics," by J. J. Sakurai,
edited by S. F. Tuan, Revised Edition
(Addison-Wesley, Inc., Reading, Massachusetts, 1994) ISBN 0-201-53929-2.
Reference Books (many of these are on reserve in the Physics Library):
Baym, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics.
QC174.1 .B35
Cohen-Tannoudji, Quantum Mechanics, 1977. QC 174.12 C6313
Dirac, Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 1958. QC 174.3 D5 1958
Gasiorowicz, Quantum Physics, 2nd ed., 1996.
QC 174.12 G37 1996
Gottfried, Quantum Mechanics. QC 174.1 G64
Gottfried and Yan, Quantum Mechanics: fundamentals, 2003.
QC 174.12 G68
Landau and Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics: non-relativistic theory,
1977. QC 174.12 L3513
Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics, 1970. QC 174.12 M47 1998
Messiah, Quantum Mechanics. QC 174.1 M413
Schwabl, Quantum Mechanics. QC 174.12 S38713 1991.
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Grades:
- 45% --- homework (7 sets)
- 5% --- classroom participation and overall effort
- 25% --- mid-term (take-home)
- 25% --- final exam
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