Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
About me
My name is Patrick Van Esch, and I am tutoring a study group
on non-relativistic quantum mechanics. That's why I've set up this web
page, to share some material with the students of the study group. I'm
not so very fond of publishing a lot of personal stuff, so I'll keep this short.
You can always e-mail me.
Course information
We follow the book "Modern Quantum Mechanics"
by the late J.J. Sakurai. There is a second edition available but I have
a copy of the first edition. More information is available if you want to
find out if this study group suits you.
Important: don't confuse this book with Sakurai's other, better known book "Advanced
QM." !
The course takes place at the online school
where you should first register - if you haven't registered at the
school you should first do that. After registering for the course
"qm101" I'll send you a user id and password and you can then go to the
QM101 course page
where you can go to the cafe board for all things general.
QM101 deals with the first 3 chapters of Sakurai.
The course QM101 started end of october 2003 and ended beginning of
march 2004.
I'll prepare QM102 which will deal with the remaining chapters of
Sakurai (namely, 4,5,6, and 7) plus some extra material. The
students of QM101 will be contacted by e-mail: other interested persons
should regularly check this page.
Prerequisites
In order to be able to follow the material, one should know some Classical Mechanics, a little bit of classical
electromagnetism, and a first course in quantum mechanics (wave mechanics, the
Schroedinger equation, one-dimensional potential problems, the Hydrogen atom).
On the mathematical side, one needs to know about real and 3-dim calculus, some
complex analysis, one needs to know rather well linear algebra and some basic
probability theory. A little bit of group theory would be nice, too.
Conceptual summaries of the chapters
I will try to put up a page here that summarizes the concepts in each
chapter, tries to give an overview, and add some personal view on the
subject. This is not meant to be read alone, but in parallel with
the corresponding chapter in the book. Interesting points raised
by students will also be included in these summaries, the aim being
that it becomes a text that helps the reader having the right
conceptual understanding of what is given in each chapter, and
answering most of the remaining difficulties. We will not plunge
into detailed calculations here.
Chapter 1: Fundamental Concepts
Chapter 2: Quantum Dynamics
Chapter 3: Theory of Angular Momentum
Chapter 4: Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics
Chapter 5: Approximation methods
Chapter 6: Identical particles
Next to these conceptual summaries, here is a compendium of the important formulae. (and here's the
LaTeX). I'm still working on it.
Solutions to exercises.
Chapter 1
problem 1 by Michael.
problem 2 by Kenneth.
problem 3 by Patrick
problem 4, page 1 and problem 4, page 2 by Patrick
problem 8, page 1 and problem 8, page 2 by Patrick
problem 12, page 1 by Patrick
problem 16, page 1 by Patrick
problem 20, page 1 and problem 20, page 2 by Patrick.
problem 22, page 1 and problem 22, page 2 by Patrick.
problem 24, page 1 and problem 24, page 2 by Patrick.
problem 27, page 1 by Patrick
problem 28, page 1 and problem 28, page 2 by Patrick
problem 29, page 1 by Patrick
problem 30, page 1 by Patrick
problem 31, page 1 by Patrick
problem 32, page 1 and problem 32, page 2 by Patrick
problem 33, page 1 and problem 33, page 2 by Patrick
problem 2,3,7,8 by Ray.
problem 9 by Ray.
problem 13 by Ray.
Some solutions
by Joe.
problem 23 and 26 by Ray.
Chapter 2
problem 1, page 1 by Patrick
problem 3, page 1 by Patrick
problem 4, page 1 by Patrick
problem 5, page 1 by Patrick
problem 6, page 1 by Patrick
problem 7, page 1 by Patrick
problem 8, page 1 and problem 8, page 2 by Patrick
problem 11, page 1 by Patrick
problem 12, page 1 by Patrick
problem 16, page 1 ,problem 16, page 2 and problem 16, page 3 by Patrick
problem 18, page 1 ,problem 18, page 2 and problem 18, page 3 by Patrick
problem 20, page 1 and problem 20, page 2 by Patrick
problem 21, page 1 by Patrick
problem 22, page 1 by Patrick
problem 23, page 1 by Patrick
problem 24 notebook by Patrick.
problem 28 notebook by Patrick.
Problem 32, I don't have Finkelstein and I don't have any idea what is
Schwinger's action principle...
problem 36, page 1 by Patrick
A notebook illustrating problem 18 by Patrick.
problem 18 by Ray
problem 19 by Ray
Chapter 3
problem 4 by Patrick
problem 8 notebook by Patrick.
problem 12, page 1 by Patrick
problem 16, page 1 by Patrick
problem 20, page 1 and problem 20, page 2 by Patrick
problem 24, page 1 by Patrick
problem 28 notebook by Patrick.
Chapter 4
problem 4 by Patrick
problem 8 by Patrick
