PHYS 518: Quantum Mechanics (Winter 2023)
M W F 9:30-10:50am PAA A114
Instructor: Silas Beane B457 OH: M 12:30pm-1:45pm and W 12:30pm-1:45pm
(zoom by appointment: https://washington.zoom.us/my/silasmotu)
TA: William Marshall B147 OH: T 11:00am-12:00pm
Subject matter and texts
This is the second quarter of a three-quarter graduate sequence on quantum mechanics.
A rough outline of the subject matter we will cover is:
Density matrices; mixed versus pure ensembles.
Rotations, and the groups SO(3) and SU(2).
Angular momentum in QM, including addition of angular momenta.
Tensor operators and the Wigner-Eckart theorem.
3-d Schrodinger equation and application to the hydrogen atom, including Runge-Lenz vector.
Discrete symmetries: parity (recap from 517) and time-reversal.
Time-independent perturbation theory and applications to hydrogen-like atoms
Time-dependent perturbation theory and applications including Fermi's Golden rule
Adiabatic approximation and Berry phases.
The main text is Sakurai & Napolitano (SN), Modern Quantum Mechanics, third edition. We will aim to cover chapters 3-5. Note that SN's order will not be followed exactly.
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, and you must have taken 517 or the
equivalent.
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, exams and grades
The grades for this course will be based on homework (20%), two midterm exams (25% each) and a final exam (30%). The final exam will be comprehensive.
There will be problem sets that must be submitted via CANVAS on Fridays before 11:59pm. In grading there will be a strong emphasis on neatness and logic
of presentation. The homeworks will be long and difficult. If you start working on an assignment the day before it’s due, you will not finish it in time. Late homework will not
be accepted unless there is a compelling rationale. I believe that most of what you’ll get out of this class will be from the homework. I encourage you to work on the homework
in groups. However, the work that you hand in must be your own, and you must list your collaborators on your manuscript as well as any references you have used (e.g.
if you find a solution to a problem on the web, you must cite the url). I take this very seriously; a failure to acknowledge sources may result in a loss of all credit for the
assignment, or worse.
Religious Accommodations
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