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PHY 6646 - Spring 2002
Topics Covered

The subject matter of the course is defined by the content of the lectures plus all reading assignments announced in class. The main topics are listed below in the order they were covered. Each topic is cross-referenced to the most closely related section(s) of Shankar ("S"), Merzbacher ("M"), and/or Ballentine ("B").

Particle in an Electromagnetic Field
Charged particle in an EM field: general formalism (S18.4, B11.2)
Charged particle in a uniform electric field (M7.2)
Charged particle moving in a uniform magnetic field (B11.3)
The Aharanov-Bohm and related effects (B11.4, S18.4)
Orbital and spin magnetic moments (S14.4)
Spin dynamics (S14.4, B12.1)
Spin-1/2 in a magnetic field (S14.4)

The Variational Method
Variational formulation of the eigenvalue problem (B10.6)
The variational method (B10.6, S16.1)
Variational theorem for the lowest eigenvalue (S16.1)
Variational approximations for higher eigenvalues (S16.1, M8.2)

The WKB Method
The WKB approximation (M7.1, S16.2)
The connection formulae (M7.2, S16.2)
Bound states (M7.3, S16.2)
Tunneling though a barrier (M7.4, S16.2)

Time-Independent Perturbation Theory
Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory (S17.1, S17.2)
Degenerate Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory (S17.3, handout)
Near degeneracy (B10.5)

End of material tested on Exam 1

Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory (B10.5, handout)

Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory
General formalism (B12.5)
First-order perturbation theory (S18.2)
Harmonic perturbations (S18.2)
Interaction of atoms with electromagnetic radiation (B12.6)
Induced transitions between discrete states (B12.6)
The photoelectric effect (S18.5, handout)
Second-order time-dependent perturbation theory: virtual transitions, energy shifts, and decay widths (handout)

Scattering Theory
Basic ideas (S19.2)
Scattering theory (M20.2, S19.4)
Born approximation (S19.3-4)
Method of partial waves (S19.5)

End of material tested on Exam 2

Two-particle scattering (S19.6)

Identical Particles
Permutation symmetry (B17.1)
Indistinguishability of identical particles (B17.2)
The symmetrization postulate (B17.3, S10.3)
Second quantization: creation and annihilation operators (B17.4, M21.2, handout)

End of material tested on Final Exam

Quantization of the electromagnetic field (M23.1, S18.5)

Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
The Klein-Gordon and Dirac Equations (S20.1)
The emergence of spin (S20.2)
Antiparticles (S20.3)

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Kevin Ingersent / ingersent@phys.ufl.edu
Last modified: Apr 24, 2002