PHYS 633
Quantum Mechanics

Spring Quarter 2012

MWF at 13:00 at 318 Willamette.

This the third quarter of a one year graduate level course. It is for students who have had an introductory course in quantum mechanics before. Students should also have a good background in mathematics, including linear algebra and complex analysis. I will start from the beginning and develop the major ideas of quantum mechanics. Thus a student who has not seen some particular idea or method will be able to learn it in this course. However, the pace will be too fast for a student who has not seen any of the ideas and methods.

Instructor:

Text:

Schedule:

Reading:

Homework:

There will be problems assigned each week in class, due on Wednesdays. Occasionally a problem will involve computer work. I recommend Mathematica, which is available at UO computer labs. If you already know some other computer language like C++, Fortran, Matlab, or Maple, you can use what you know.
  1. Wednesday 11 April: Sakurai, problems 7.2, 7.3, 7.5, 7.6. For problem 7.3, we suppose that the spatial wave functions are the same for both of the particles. For problem 7.6, you can ignore the question "What is the total spin in each case."
  2. Wednesday 18 April: Sakurai, problems 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4. (See solutions for problems 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4.)
  3. Wednesday 25 April: Sakurai, problems 5.12, 5.20, 5.21. (See solution for problem 5.12.)
  4. Wednesday 2 May: Sakurai, problems 5.22, 5.26, 5.30(a). Our midterm exam is also on 2 May. You may want to look at the midterm exam from last year. (See solution for problem 5.22.)
  5. Wednesday 9 May: Sakurai, problems 5.35 and 5.38. (See solution for problem 5.38.)
  6. Wednesday 16 May: Notes, Time dependent perturbation theory, exercise 12.1. (See solution.)
  7. Wednesday 23 May: Notes, Scattering theory, exercise 6.1.
  8. Wednesday 30 May: Notes, Sakurai problems 6.1 and 6.2. (Submit to Chris Newby.)
  9. Wednesday 6 June: Notes, Scattering theory, exercises 15.1 and 15.2.

Available notes in .pdf format:

Exams:

Grading:

The homework assignments will count for 25% of the course grade. There will be one midterm exam, which counts for 25% of the course grade. The final exam will count for 50% of the course grade.

Exams are to be taken without notes or books. That is because I want to encourage you to remember the most important formulas for quantum mechanics. If you will need an obscure complicated formula for an exam question, I will give it on the exam.

Note: I encourage students to work together on the homework. I don't want you to just copy from someone else's work because you won't learn anything that way, but if you work out the solution jointly with someone else or with a group, that's fine. Real science usually involves teamwork, so it's a good idea for you to learn how to work on science with others. This policy is an exception to the normal university rule about doing your own work. Of course, on exams, your paper has to be entirely your own work.

Davison E. Soper, Institute of Theoretical Science, University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403 USA soper@uoregon.edu