Physics 551: Quantum Theory


A graduate course in Quantum Mechanics, at the level of (and using) Sakurai and Napolitano. Here is the course syllabus.

Instructor: Guy D. Moore
Rutherford Building, Office 313
(514) 398-4345, Fax 3733
guymoore "at" physics.mcgill.ca
Course meetings: Rutherford room 115, Mon/Wed 4:05 PM to 5:25 PM
Office hours: Weekdays, 11:00 to 12:00 (but you can try me any time)

The course book has an errata file which may be helpful.

Don't confuse the course book with Sakurai's other book, which is quite different.

Homeworks

are now all posted, but I have taken down the solutions, in case I want to use some of the problems again some day.

NOTE: For U3 students intending to start graduate school in the fall, you should investigate the possibility of a graduate fellowship from FQRNT and from NSERC!

Lectures: Please do the readings before attending class, though this is not always possible.
Date Lecture topic Reading
3 September Review of Hilbert spaces, Bras and Kets Book 1.1-1.3. Review 1.4-1.7
8 September WKB approximation Book 2.5, mostly pp 110-116. Alpha decay: see nice page
10 September Simple Harmonic Oscillator I Book, 2.3
15 September SHO: Coherent and Squeezed States Book, 2.3; Webpage, example paper, Classic review paper

Discussion of Wigner distribution

17 September Time evolution: Schrödinger vs Heisenberg Book, 2.2
22 September Symmetries in Quantum Mechanics Book, 4.1 through 4.3
24 September Time reversal, Anti-unitary symmetries Book, 4.4
29 September Rotation symmetry Book 3.1, 3.3
1 October Representation theory and Rotations Book 3.5, 3.6
6 October Adding angular momenta Book 3.8
8 October Wigner-Eckart Theorem Book 3.11
13 October No Lecture Thanksgiving
15 October Path Integrals Book 2.6
20 October Density matrix, measurement Book 3.4
22 October Density matrix Book 3.4, 3.10: Quantum Mechanics In Your Face
27 October Electromagnetism Book 2.7
29 October Aharanov-Bohm effect Book 2.7
3 November Perturbation theory Review Book 5.5
5 November Time Dependent Pert Thy Book 5.6, 5.7; see also This page
10 November Radiation from Atoms I 5.8-5.9, Townsend Chapter 14
12 November Special Surprise
17 November Radiation from Atoms II same
19 November Radiation III same
24 November Scattering Theory Book 6.1-6.3
26 November Scattering, phase shifts Book 6.4, helpful pages
1 December Phase shifts Book 6.6,6.7
3 December Relativistic QM I Notes on Lorentz group, Book 8.1,8.2
4 December Relativistic QM II Book 8.4