PHYS 606, QUANTUM MECHANICS I, Spring 2015

Instructor: Dr. Rainer Fries

Important Information

• Class hours: Tue, Thu, 12.45 pm - 2 pm, Room MPHY 109
• Office hours: Tue, Wed, 10.30-12, in MPHY 309 or with appointment.
• Midterm exam: Thursday, March 26, 12.30-2.15 PM, MPHY 109
• Final exam: Monday, May 11, 3-5 PM, MPHY 332; NOTE THE CHANGED TIME


• Please read the Syllabus for more information .
• Primary Textbook: Eugen Merzbacher, Quantum Mechanics, 3rd edition. There are many other textbooks, like Landau-Lifshitz Vol. III, Sakurai, Schiff, etc. which cover the same topics and which might be useful to look into if you feel you need to see a topic from a different angle.
  It might sometimes be useful to have a good advanced mechanics book at hand since we will be using some concepts like Hamilton functions, Hamilton principal action and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Examples are Landau-Lifshitz Vol. I, and Goldstein. I will also post some relevant notes from my PHYS 601 course below.

Lecture Notes

Here are two chapters from my PHYS 601 (Analytic Mechanics) notes that contain material relevant for this course. They might be useful this semester.
Chapter 1 (Review of Newtonian Mechanics): This contains e.g. a discussion of the Galilei Group.
Chapter 4, sections 1-4 (Hamilton Formalism I): A basic introduction to the Hamilton formulation of mechanics.
Chapter 4, sections 5-7 (Hamilton Formalism II): This contains e.g. an introduction to Hamilton-Jacobi theory.

PHYS 606 Notes: These are early versions of notes which can contain typos and other kind of errors. Please notify me of any errors you notice.

Notes for Chapter I: From Classical Mechanics to Wave Mechanics [typeset]

Notes for Chapter II, Sections 1 through 4: Wave Mechanics, Part I [typeset]

Notes for Chapter II, Sections 5 through 9: Wave Mechanics, Part II [handwritten notes; note that section numbers have changed]

Notes for Chapter II, Section 10: Wave Mechanics, Part III [handwritten notes]

Notes for Chapter III: First Applications - 1D Problems [handwritten notes; note that section numbers have changed]

Notes for Chapter IV, Secs. 1-4: Introduction to Approximation Schemes, Part I [handwritten notes]

Notes for Chapter IV, Sec. 5: Introduction to Approximation Schemes, Part II [handwritten notes]

Notes for Chapter V: Foundations of Quantum Mechanics [handwritten notes]

Notes for Chapter VI: Angular Momentum and Rotationally Invariant Problems [handwritten notes]

Homework, Exams, and Solutions

Homework I, due February 10
Solution HW I

Homework II, due February 17
Solution HW II

Homework III, due February 24
Solution HW III

Homework IV, due March 3
Solution HW IV

Homework V, due March 10
Solution HW V

Homework VI, due March 24
Solution HW VI

Midterm Exam
Solution Midterm Exam

Homework VII, due April 7
Solution HW VII

Homework VIII, due April 14
Solution HW VIII

Homework IX, due April 21
Solution HW IX

Homework X, due April 28
Solution HW X

Practice Final Exam (Spring 2014)