Physics 606: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
credit: physicsworld.com
Instructor: Roland E. Allen
1-979-845-4341, Room M213 MIST
allen@tamu.edu, http://people.tamu.edu/~allen
Office hours: 3-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; or by appointment
This course will meet MWF at 9:10 - 10:00.
Textbook: Lectures on Quantum Mechanics, by Gordon Baym (with supplementary material from the textbooks by Merzbacher, Sakurai, and others).
Thanks to the support of Texas A&M University Libraries, you can access it for free at Lectures on Quantum Mechanics, by Gordon Baym, in Texas A&M library.
This book was chosen out of the many excellent textbooks on quantum mechanics because it contains very physical and clear discussions of the central topics. The present course will essentially consist of the material in Chapters 3-7, 9, and 11-12 of this textbook, with only a few changes in notation and emphasis, and a few extra topics. The book is so well-written that it is easy to underestimate its depth, and how the main principles of quantum mechanics are covered in the clearest and most economical way. You may want to bring your copy of the textbook to class for easier note-taking. As evidence that our textbook and course are relevant to physics in general, let us note: ‘Theoretical physicist Gordon Baym has been selected to receive the 2021 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research for “major discoveries in theoretical condensed matter and many-body physics, neutron star structure and composition, quark matter and quark-gluon plasma physics, and in atomic physics and ultracold quantum gases.”’
Evaluation:
Homework 35%
2 "midterm" exams 40%
final exam (comprehensive) 25%
Homework is due at the beginning of class each Friday or the day noted below. Homework late by ≤ 2 working days 1/2 credit. Homework late by > 2 working days no credit.
The exams will be conducted at 7:15 p.m. in Room (MPHY) 213 on Wednesday, February 21; Wednesday, April 10; and Friday, May 3 (the date required by the university).
We will have optional evening sessions for homework presentations by students (for extra credit) shortly before each exam.
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Here are copies of some old exams, to illustrate the format only. The content of the exams for this semester will be quite different, of course.
Exam 1 2022.pdf , Exam 1 2022 solution.pdf
Exam 2 2022.pdf , Exam 2 2022 solution.pdf
Final 2022.pdf , Final 2022 solution.pdf
2021 Final Exam as pdf , solution to 2021 Final Exam as pdf
2021 Exam 1 as pdf , solution to 2021 Exam 1 as pdf
2021 Exam 2 as pdf , solution to 2021 Exam 2 as pdf
Exam 1 as pdf , solution to Exam 1 as pdf
Exam 2 as pdf , solution to Exam 2 as pdf
Final Exam as pdf , solution to Final Exam as pdf
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HOMEWORK
1. January 19: 3.2
2. January 26: 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
3. February 2: 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12
4. February 9: 4.13, 4.14, 4.15 (a) and (b); S 2.4, S 2.36
5. February 16: S 2.6, S 2.15, S 2.17
6. [Wednesday] February 28: 5.1, 5.2 (a) & (b), 5.2 (c) and (d), 5.3, 5.4 (a) and (b)
7. March 8: 5.4 (c), 5.4 (d), 5.5 (a), 5.5 (b), 5.6 (a)
8. March 22: 6.1 first sentence only, 6.2 (a), 6.2 (b), 6.2 (c), 6.3
9. [Wednesday] March 27: 6.5 (a) & (b), 7.1 (a), 7.1 (b), 7.2, 7.3 (a) -- ground state (of hydrogen atom) only in all parts of 7.3
[See https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ConnectionBetweenQuantumMechanicalHydrogenAtomAndHarmonicOsc/ for the general case. See also R. J. Yáñez, W. Van Assche, and J. S. Dehesa, "Position and momentum information entropies of the D-dimensional harmonic oscillator and hydrogen atom", Phys. Rev. A 50, 3065 (1994).]
10. [Wednesday] April 3: 7.3 (b) again ground state (of hydrogen atom) only, 7.3 (c), 7.4 (a), 7.4 (b) (but Eq. (7-31) only), 7.4 (c)
11. [Wednesday] April 17: 9.2, HW 11.1, HW11.2 (a), HW11.2 (b) and (c) in HW11-2-problems.pdf below,
12. [Wednesday] April 24: 11.7, S 5.11 (a) and (b) only; HW 12.1, HW 12.2, HW 12.3 in attached HW12-3-problems.pdf below
13. [Tuesday, redefined Friday] April 30: 11.3, 12.2, 12.4 (a); HW13.1 and HW13.2 (in HW13-2-problems.pdf below).