[Introduction and General
Format|Syllabus]
[Problem Sets|
Suggested Reading]
[Offices Hours; Grader|
[Lecture Notes|
Random Information]
We will meet in Smith 1180 Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:18 and Fridays from 1:30 to 2:18 and 2:30 to 3:18.
Grades will be based on one midterm (about 30%), a final (about 45%), and homework (25%).
The date of the midterm will be Friday, February 6. The final will be given on Saturday, March 14 from 1:30 to 3:30 in Smith 1042 (Note: this is a different room from our lectures.)
Besides the principal textbook, I will probably be taking some material from various other books. Some good supplementary textbooks are the following:
``Quantum Mechanics,'' third edition, by Eugen Merzbacher (Wiley, New York, 1998).
``Modern Quantum Mechanics,'' second edition, by J. J. Sakurai (Addison-Wesley, New York, 1994).
``Quantum Mechanics, Non-Relativistic Theory,'' by E. M. Lifshitz, L. D. Landau (vol. 3 of Course of Theoretical Physics), third edition (Butterworth-Heineman, Oxford, 1977-2003). Old but classic text.
``Quantum Mechanics,'' (two volumes), by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, and Franck Laloe (Wiley, New York, 1977). I expect to take occasional lecture material from this book.
``Quantum Mechanics,'' by Albert Messiah.
``Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (2nd Edition)'' by David J. Griffiths (Prentice-Hall, 1994). Commonly used undergraduate text.
``Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals,'' by Kurt Gottfried and Tung-Mow Yan (Advanced Book Classics). Old but still useful.
``Lectures on Quantum Mechanics,'' by Gordon Baym (Addison-Wesley Advanced Book Program).
``Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers,'' by David A. B. Miller (Cambridge U. P., 2008). Undergrad/grad text with some material not found in most quantum texts (intro to quantum information theory, quantum mechanics of crystals).
``Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell,'' by Gerald D. Mahan (Princeton U. P., 2009). Textbook in graduate quantum mechanics, as taught by the author for many years. Lots of material not found in most quantum texts (entanglement, many-particle systems, Bose-Einstein condensation).
During winter quarter , I plan to cover all of the following: symmetry, spin angular momentum, addition of angular momenta, variational method, WKB approximation, time-independent perturbation theory, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi golden rule. and semiclassical theory of radiation, applications. This corresponds roughly to parts of chapters 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. The path integral formulation of quantum mechanics will probably be postponed till spring quarter.
Note: a reasonable online math reference is http://mathworld.wolfram.com, which has lots of analysis, plus a great deal of information about special functions. Two good books are "Tables of Integrals, Series, and Products," 6th ed., by Gradshteyn, Ryzhik, Jeffrey, and Zwillinger (Academic, San Diego, 2000), and "Mathematical Methods for Physicists," by Arfken, Weber, and Weber (Academic, San Diego, 2001).
I plan to have weekly problem sets, due on Wednesdays by 11:59 PM. If possible, turn in the problem sets into the mailbox of the grader (Advait Nagarkar) in PRB. Alternately, you may turn them into my box, turn them in during class, hand them to me in my office, or slip them under my door (2048PRB) if I am not there.
In calculating the homework grade, I will discard your lowest (by percent) homework score, and sum up the remaining scores, normalizing them to 100. Thus, you may omit one homework without penalty.
In general, I do not object if you discuss the problems with one another while working on them. However, you should write up your solutions independently.
oProblem Set 1.
oSolutions to PS1.
oProblem Set 2.
oSmall supplemental problem for Prob. Set 2
oSolutions to PS2.
oProblem Set 3. NOTE: the deadline for this problem set is postponed until Friday, January 30 at 11:59 PM.
oSolutions to PS3
oProblem Set 4
oSolutions to PS4 (except for Jaynes-Cummings solution, which will be posted separately).
oSolution to Jaynes-Cummings problem.
oProblem Set 5
oSolutions to PS5.
oProblem Set 6
oSolutions to PS6.
oProblem Set 7
oSolutions to PS7
oProblem Set 8
oSolutions to PS8
I will not have any required reading. However, I will try to suggest sections of the text to be read before or after my lectures.
My office is Room 2048 of the Physics Research Building. My office telephone no. is 292-8140 and my email address is stroud@mps.ohio-state.edu. Office hours will be M and W from 1:00 to 2:00 and by appointment. The grader is Advait Nagarkar (email nagarkar.2@edu). Please consult him if you have any questions about the homework grading.
oFirst set of lecture notes (introduction to symmetry in quantum mechanics).
oSecond set of lecture notes (spin I).
oSupplement to second set of lecture notes (spin II, including spin + orbital degrees of freedom, Stern-Gerlach experiment).
oThird set of lecture notes (approximation methods for stationary problems: variational method, Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation, time-independent perturbation theory, some applications. These notes also include orbital Hamiltonian for a charged particle with vector potential, which was actually presented last quarter).
oFourth set of lecture notes (more on time-independent perturbation theory, including application to van der Waals attraction; addition of angular momenta).
oFifth set of lecture notes (scalar, vector, and tensor operators; selection rules; Wigner-Eckart theorem; fine structure and hyperfine Hamiltonian, part of time-dependent perturbation theory)
oSixth set of lecture notes (semiclassical theory of electromagnetic waves, interaction of em waves with matter).
These are posted for your convenience. I haven't edited them and they are not guaranteed to be error-free.
oWolfgang Pauli
oAlbert Einstein
oPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac
oCharles Hermite
oMax Planck
oNiels Bohr
o Werner Heisenberg
oErwin Schrodinger
o Schrodinger's cat