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Meets - Mon Wed Fri 10-10:50 am; Faraday Hall 237
Fall 2017 syllabus (v 1b) is posted below.
Links to handouts and announcements pages will also be at bottom of page.
Two In-Class exams are scheduled (Wed, Oct 4, Fri, Nov 17).
Final in-class exam is Mon. December 11, 2017 10-11:50 a.m., Final is cumulative
There is not a Blackboard site set up yet - if there is one, it may duplicate handouts and announcements on the NIU "Blackboard", but typically, Blackboard will be used for for handouts or information that for some reason should not be put on a public site. (e.g., homework answer sets, or copies of published papers that I have recently found for students to use in assignments to see how topics of course are used in real physics life). When possible, I will include links on this site.
This will be the Required Textbook.
Quantum Mechanics for Scientists and Engineers: David A. B. Miller, (2008) Publisher: Cambridge Press. (This is a quite nice book, it has a more pragmatic approach than the UG texts that attempt to mimic a graduate physics QM course. I think that it fits well for this course (460/560) - where students will go off in many directions after this course - some to graduate school in physics (where having good visualizations and intuition of what works will help them when they tackle the math again at a deeper level) and for those going to interdisciplinary areas, they will have enough solid background to understand (and even calculate models) applicable to their fields. We will be skipping through some specialized chapters in order to retain a more standard order, however, if you look at the book, it very clearly notes at the start of each chapter how it relates to chapters before.
Background textbooks
Pull your Phys III (intro modern physics, i.e., Phys 283) and Intro Modern Physics (i.e., Phys 383) textbooks out of storage! Please see me for other suggestions and loaners of other helper textbooks at the level if necessary.
Additional textbooks at the upper level UG level (similar to this course) that have good material covered in different ways or problems for practice.
The following are very classic text often used for 2 semester UG quantum physics courses.
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, David J. Griffiths, Pearson Prentice Hall;
Introductory Quantum Mechanics, Richard Liboff, Addison Wesley Publishing;
Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications, Nouredine Zettili, Wiley Publishing
I have not seen the following - but just ran across it and was able to see the table of contents - has a broad and interesting selection of topics.
The Quantum Mechanics Solver: How to Apply Quantum Theory to Modern Physics,
Jean-Louis Basdevant and Jean Dalibard, Springer Press
The following is not a complete course at this level, but has some similar material and a lot of useful and interesting applications.
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: in Chemistry, Materials Science, and Biology,
S. M. Blinder, Academic Press.
Note to Phys 560 students (graduate credit)
Phys 560 students will usually have extra required problems added into the homework, or some problems replaced by more sophisticated versions. Typically, one of their exam problem choices will be replaced with a problem that requires a deeper level of understanding. I otherwise will use the same 'percentage' weighting for final grade.
revision notes:
Syllabus 1b, corrected classroom information
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