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PHY 6646 Quantum Mechanics 2
Spring 2003

This is the second of two courses constituting the graduate core sequence in quantum mechanics. The first course (PHY 6645 Quantum Mechanics 1) is taught in the fall semester. Use the buttons at left to access pages for Spring 2003. You can also view archived information for Spring 2002.

Overview

PHY 6646 is designed for students who have already had at least one year of quantum mechanics at the undergraduate level, and who have successfully completed PHY 6645 or equivalent. The main topics covered are approximation methods (variational and WKB methods, perturbation theory), 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 quantum mechanics from a few basic postulates. Many readers find this to be a very useful tool for learning the subject. The main ideas are laid out clearly and logically. In places, however, Shankar 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, but the only one of the three texts to really address such fundamental issues as the physical interpretation of the wave function and the procedure for quantizing classical systems.
 
E. Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1998 (recommended text).
    More complete than Shankar, but less well organized and less clearly written. 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.

 

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Kevin Ingersent / ingersent@phys.ufl.edu
Last modified: Jan 2, 2003