[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 (25%), a final (50%), and homework (25%).
The midterm will be held on Friday, February 8, starting at 1:30 PM. The date of the final will be announced shortly.
Besides the principal textbook, I may be drawing 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).
``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,'' (two volumes bound as one), 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)
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, and semiclassical theory of radiation. 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 good 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 (Rakesh Tiwari) 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
oSolutions to PS2.
oProblem Set 3
oSolutions to PS3.
oProblem Set 4
oSolutions to PS4.
oProblem Set 5
oSolutions to PS5.
oProblem Set 6
oSolutions to PS6.
oProblem Set 7
oSolutions to PS7.
oProblem Set 8
oCorrections to PS8.
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 3:30 to 4:30 and by appointment. The grader is Rakesh Tiwari (email tiwari@mps.ohio-state.edu, office PRB2025). Please consult him if you have any questions about the homework grading.
These are posted for your convenience. I haven't edited them and they are not guaranteed to be error-free.
oFirst set of lecture notes (symmetry). (Should cover approximately first three lectures.)
oSecond set of lecture notes (part of spin)
oThird set of lecture notes (Hamiltonian for a charged particle in a magnetic field, variational method, WKB approximation, perturbation theory)
oFourth set of lecture notes (more on perturbation theory, 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 treatment of electromagnetic waves; interaction of em waves with atoms).
oSeventh set of lecture notes (Landau levels). This set also includes notes on the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, which will not be discussed till next quarter.
oEight set of lecture notes (reflection of a beam of neutrons by a ferromagnetic material; two spin-1/2 particles in a magnetic field; more on tensor operators, and on addition of angular momenta of two or three particles; more complete derivation of Hamiltonian of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field). Note: most of this material is background for other lecture notes, and will probably not be discussed in class.
oWolfgang Pauli
oAlbert Einstein
oPaul Adrien Maurice Dirac
oCharles Hermite
oMax Planck
oNiels Bohr
o Werner Heisenberg
oErwin Schrodinger
o Schrodinger's cat