Class meets MWF 12:30 PM in Wean Hall 7316
Professor Mike Widom, Office 6305 Wean Hall
e-mail widom@cmu.edu, Phone: 268-7645
Office hours: Any time my door is open, or by appointment
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. A course web site at http://euler.phys.cmu.edu/widom/teaching/33-756 contains the syllabus plus links to day-by-day lecture coverage and weekly homework assignments.
Books: Four books are available in the E&S library.
1. Cohen-Tannoudji, Diu and Laloë, Quantum Mechanics,
vols. 1 and 2 (QC174.12 .C6313)
2. Le Bellac, Quantum Physics (QC174.12 L43)
3. Shankar, Principles of Quantum Mechanics (QC174.12 .S52 1994)
4. Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics (QC174.12.S25 1994)
The principal content of the course will be drawn from Cohen-Tannoudji, 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 homework, midterm exams, and a final exam. Homework assignments are listed at http://euler.phys.cmu.edu/widom/teaching/33-756/hw.html. Dates for midterm and final exams will be announced as they become available.
Course Outline:
Note this outline is only approximate. Actual class coverage can be found here.
Angular momentum addition. Reading, Cohen-Tannoudji chapter 10.
Time-independent perturbation theory, variational and semiclassical methods. Applications to chemical bonding, crystal energy bands, atomic fine structure. Reading, Cohen-Tannoudji chapters 11 and 12.
Many particle systems and quantum statistics. Applications to many-electron atoms, quantum chemistry, Bose and Fermi gases. Reading Cohen-Tannoudji chapter 14.
Scattering and time-dependent perturbation theory. Applications include interactions of atoms with light, Fermi Golden Rule, adiabatic and sudden approximations and multiple scattering theory. Reading, Cohen-Tannoudji chapters 8 and 13.