Quantum Mechanics I - PHY 4604				Prof. Selman Hershfield
Time: MWF 6th period					Office: 2138 NPB
Location: NPB 1101					Phone: 392-9387
Office hours: TBA					selman@phys.ufl.edu

Course: This is the first class in our two semester senior level sequence
on quantum mechanics.  While your modern physics class motivated quantum
mechanics and solved some problems, in this course we will start with the
Schrodinger equation, develop the formalism used in quantum mechanics, and
solve a number of classic problems.  Because quantum mechanics is central
to much of physics today, you will likely be using the material in this
course for a long time to come if you continue on in physics.

Prerequisites: The only true prerequisite for this course is a course in
modern physics such as PHY 3101 or PHY 3062.  Familiarity with such linear
algebra concepts as eigenvalues and eigenvectors will be very helpful.

Book: The required text for this course is the book "Quantum Mechanics"  
by Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu, and Laloe.  This book is going to be different
from most of the other text books you have used in that it is more of a
reference than a standard undergraduate textbook.  Nonetheless, we will
cover Volume 1 this semester (Chapters 1-7), but we will not cover every
page in Volume 1, which would take much longer than a semester.

Topics: There is a list of standard problems solved in a first semester
course on quantum mechanics.  These problems are important because many or
even most of the more advanced problems in quantum mechanics build upon
these classic problems.  They are:

	* Piece wise constant potentials in one dimension (Chpt. 1)
	* Spin 1/2 and two level systems (Chpt. 4)
	* Harmonic oscillator (Chpt. 5)
	* Angular momentum (Chpt. 6)
	* Hydrogen atom (Chpt. 7)

In addition we will develop the formalism and principles of quantum
mechanics (Chpts. 2 and 3).

Grades: There will be three exams during the semester.  You can drop the
grade on the lowest one.  There will also be a cumulative final exam,
which is mandatory.  Homework assignments will be given once a week.  A
small portion of the grade will come from work done in class.  Your total
grade will be determined by

	25% Highest exam score
	25% Second highest exam score
	25% Final exam
	20% Homework
	 5% Work in class .

Additional comments: There is a web site for the course which will contain
my lecture notes, homework solutions, and other supplementary material for
the course: www.phys.ufl.edu/~selman/teaching/fall01/ .  Because of the
anticipated large amount of supplementary material, it is recommended that
you get a 3-ring binder to organize all the information.  My goal for the
course is to explain everything from first principles.  Thus, some of the
supplementary material will not be covered in class, but only appear in my
notes to justify derivations done in class.