Class meets MWF 12:30 PM in Wean Hall 7316
Professor Mike Widom, Office 6424 Wean Hall
e-mail widom@andrew.cmu.edu, Phone: 268-7645
Course web site http://euler.phys.cmu.edu/widom/teaching/33-756
This course covers quantum mechanics at a second-semester introductory graduate level. Prior familiarity with fundamental principles and applications of quantum mechanics will be assumed. Undergraduate quantum mechanics and first-semester graduate quantum mechanics are prerequisites, and the material will be presented at a mathematically and scientifically sophisticated level.
Books: Six books are available in the E&S library.
1. Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics (QC174.12.S25 1994)
2. Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu and Laloë, Quantum Mechanics,
vols. 1 and 2 (530.12 C67q)
3. Landau and Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics (Non-relativistic theory)
(530.1 L25Q3)
4. Bransden and Joachain, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (530.12 B821I)
5. Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics (530.12 M57Q2)
6. Ashcroft and Mermin, Solid State Physics (530.41 A82S)
The principal content of the course will be drawn from Sakurai, and we will mainly follow its notation and examples. The remaining books contain supplementary course material not found in the main text and alternate presentations of the main text material.
Grading: Letter grades will be based on in-class exams and a final exam. The first in-class exam is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 6. Homework assignments are listed here. Homework will occasionally be discussed in class but will not be collected or graded.
Course Outline:
Note this outline is only approximate. Actual class coverage can be found here.
Weeks 1-4. Symmetry in quantum mechanics. Continuous and discrete symmetries. Parity and time reversal. Bloch's theorem for periodic lattices.
Weeks 5-9. Approximation methods. Nondegenerate and degenerate time independent perturbation theory. Variational and WKB approximations. Time dependent perturbation theory. Adiabatic and sudden approximations. Berry's phase.
Weeks 10-12. Identical particle systems and quantum statistics. Many-electron atoms, Bose and Fermi gases. Interacting many-particle systems.
Weeks 12-15. Scattering. Time-independent and time-dependent approaches. Bound states and partial waves. Symmetry considerations.