PHY 6645 Quantum Mechanics 1
Fall 2002

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Overview

PHY 6645 is designed for students who have already had at least one year of quantum mechanics at the undergraduate level. It covers the fundamental concepts of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the quantum dynamics of a single particle, symmetries and their consequences, and the theory of angular momentum. PHY 6646 treats approximation methods, scattering theory, and many-particle systems.

Textbooks

All students taking the course will be expected to have access to Shankar. The other three texts are recommended but not required.

R. Shankar, Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 2nd edition, Plenum Press, 1994 (required text).
	The course will generally follow the approach used in this book, which builds up a quantum mechanical description of physical systems from a few simple postulates. Many readers find Shankar to be a very helpful in learning the subject. The main ideas are laid out clearly and logically. In places, however, the text stops short of the level of rigor or detail appropriate for a graduate course, so supplementary material will be presented in the lectures. At these points the recommended texts below may prove particularly useful.
L. E. Ballentine, Quantum Mechanics: A Modern Development, 2nd edition, World Scientific Publishing, 1998 (recommended text).
	Follows an axiomatic approach similar to Shankar's, but at a more rigorous level. Contains many typographic errors, and is sketchy on some important topics, but is the only one of the four texts to come to grips with such fundamental issues as the physical interpretation of the wave function and the procedure for quantizing classical systems (issues concerning which the author vehemently expresses his opinions).
E. Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1998 (recommended text).
	Most complete of the four texts, but also the most old-fashioned in its style of presentation, and perhaps the least illuminating in its discussion. Useful for filling in many details once the main ideas of quantum mechanics have been understood.
J. J. Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics, revised edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1994 (recommended text).
	A sophisticated graduate-level text, which omits elementary wave mechanics but contains many modern topics. The first few chapters are superb and full of insight, but the second half of the book is uneven in quality.