PHYS 517: Quantum Mechanics (Fall 2026)
T Th 11:00-12:20am PAA A114
Fr 11:30-12:20am PAA A114
Instructor: Silas Beane C529 OH: TBD
(zoom by appointment: https://washington.zoom.us/my/silasmotu)
TA: Jaazib Charanya Bxxx OH: TBD
Andrea Paolini Bxxx OH: TBD
Subject matter and texts
This is the first quarter of a three-quarter graduate sequence on quantum mechanics.
A rough outline of the subject matter we will cover is:
Postulates of QM using Stern-Gerlach experiment and spin as a prototypical example.
Quantum kinematics: Inner-product spaces; Dirac notation; Operators; Unitary Transformations; Standard measurement theory.
Continuous various: x, p . Wave packets.
Time evolution; Schrödinger and Heisenberg representations.
Simple harmonic oscillator. Parity operator. Coherent and squeezed states.
1-dim Schrödinger problems, bound and unbound.
WKB approximation and relation to Hamilton-Jacobi equation in classical mechanics.
Path integral representation of QM
Electric and magnetic fields. Gauge invariance and Aharanov-Bohm effect.
The main text is Sakurai & Napolitano (SN), Modern Quantum Mechanics, third edition. We will aim to cover chapters 1 and 2.
Additional useful texts:
Quantum Mechanics by Eugen Merzbacher (Wiley, 1997, 3rd Ed.)
Lectures on Quantum Mechanics by Steven Weinberg (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013)
Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Ramamurti Shankar (Plenum Press, NY, 1994)
Quantum Mechanics: nonrelativistic theory by L.D. Landau & E.M. Lifshitz (Pergamon, 1977)
Quantum Mechanics by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (Wiley, 1977)
Lectures on Quantum Mechanics by Gordon Baym (Addison Wesley, 1990)
Quantum Mechanics by Albert Messiah (Dover reprint 1990 of 1962 text)
The principles of Quantum Mechanics by P.A.M. Dirac (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1958 4th Ed.)
Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals by Richard R. Feynman & Albert R. Hibbs (Dover, 1965 emended edition)
Prerequisites
This is a core graduate course in physics. You must be a physics graduate student in order to take this course.
Communication
I strongly encourage students to communicate with me by email for administrative issues. I'll regularly communicate with the class by email.
But, please, no physics questions via email; unless they are of the yes-no variety they will likely go unanswered. If necessary you may attempt
to visit me outside of office hours but please do not be offended if I'm unable to speak with you immediately.
Reading assignments
There will be reading assignments posted on the calendar below. I will usually not remind you about this; it will be your responsibility
to keep track of the calendar and to do the readings ahead of lecture. Failure to do the readings may result in you being unable to follow what
we do in the class period.
Homework, class activities, exams and grades
The grades for this course will be based on homework (15%), in-class activities (10%) two midterm exams (25% each) and a final exam (25%). The final exam will be comprehensive.
Fridays will generally be dedicated to in-class problem solving.
There will be problem sets that must be submitted via CANVAS on Fridays before 11:59pm. Solutions must be handwritten. One problem from each set --indicated ahead of time-- will be graded. One problem on each of the exams will be taken directly from the ungraded homework problems. Late homework will not be accepted unless there is a compelling rationale.
Collaboration policy (Departmental)
We highly encourage discussion and collaboration during homework assignments. Ultimately, what you turn in for grading must be your own work. If you do work with others or consult references, then you may consider the assignment as consisting of two parts:
i) Collaboration and discussion phase (including seeking help from the instructors, which is highly encouraged)
ii) Writing up your own solutions independently (this is a solo exercise, no copying)
If you have consulted with others or any references, including AI tools, on your way to the solution, it is your scientific and academic responsibility to note your sources on your assignment.
Working together in parallel, talking through approaches, discussing particular steps, etc., are all great forms of collaboration, as long as step (ii) above is then followed.
For individual assignments, you may NOT directly share complete or significant parts of written solutions, or python, Mathematica, LaTeX, or other files related to your solutions with each other. It is against the Student Code of Conduct to seek/provide solutions from/to each other, or other people/sources outside of the course.
Religious Accommodations (UW)
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities.
The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/).
Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Calendar