How to Be a Quantum Mechanic

These lecture notes comprise an advanced undergraduate course in quantum mechanics as taught by Charles Wohl for over 30 years at the University of California, Berkeley. This textbook and its worked examples will teach students how to think like a quantum mechanic.

How to Be a Quantum Mechanic is an introduction to quantum mechanics at the upper-division level. It begins with wave-particle duality and ends with a brief introduction to the Dirac equation. Two attitudes went into its writing: Examples are the best way to get into a subject, and numbers and equations alone do not always sum to understanding. The author taught for 40 years at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, in experimental elementary-particle physics in the group led by Luis Alvarez.

Autorentext

Charles G. Wohl taught for 40 years at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, in experimental elementary-particle physics in the group led by Luis Alvarez.

Klappentext

How to Be a Quantum Mechanic is an introduction to quantum mechanics at the upper-division level. It begins with wave-particle duality and ends with a brief introduction to the Dirac equation. Two attitudes went into its writing: Examples are the best way to get into a subject, and numbers and equations alone do not always sum to understanding. The author taught for 40 years at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, in experimental elementary-particle physics in the group led by Luis Alvarez.

Inhalt

1. Strangest things 2. The Schrodinger Equation. Bound States 3. Simple Approximations for Bound States 4. Scattering in One Dimension 5. Mathematical Formalism 6. The Harmonic Oscillator 7. Uncertainty Relations. Simultaneous Eigenstates 8. Angular Momentum 9. Hydrogen. The Isotropic Oscillator 10. Spin 1/2 Particles 11. Hyperfine Splitting. Two Angular Momenta. Isospin 12. Cryptography. The EPR Argument. Bell's Inequality 13. Time-Independent Perturbation Theory 14. Identical Particles 15. Time-Dependent Perturbations. Planck and Einstein 16. Scattering in Three Dimensions 17. The Dirac Equation