Phone: 492-2495 Office: F419 in the Gamow Tower

Office Hours (tentative): Mon. 3-4, Tues. 1:10-3, and other times by appointment

Email/Electronic Office Hours: pollock@lucky.colorado.edu (anytime)

Lectures: MWF 2 PM in Duane G0021

Physics 4410 is a continuation of Quantum I (Physics 3220), with a focus on practical techniques to study real phenomena and applications of quantum mechanics. Examples will be drawn from atomic physics, and the interactions of light with matter, with molecular, solid state, nuclear, and particle physics applications as well.

Texts:

Required: "Quantum Physics " - S. Gasiorowicz

Homework assignments will often come out of Gasiorowicz. There will be 2 copies on reserve in the physics library.

Suggested: "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" - D. Griffiths

This is written at a slightly more basic level than Gasiorowicz, and you may find it useful as a reference. There will be a copy on reserve in the physics library.

Other references:

There are tons of introductory quantum texts out there, probably more than for any other

undergrad physics topic. Most of the books below are comparable in level to Gasiorowicz, but if you're having difficulties their different styles, perspectives, additional problems and examples may be very useful to you. Quantum mechanics is pretty non- (or counter) intuitive, it's tough to really learn it well from a single text! Here are just a few suggestions :

Eisberg and Resnick, "Quantum Physics ", E. Merzbacher, "Quantum Mechanics",

R. Liboff, "Introductory Quantum Mechanics", P. Tipler, "Modern Physics",

F. Mandl, "Quantum Mechanics", R. Robinett, "Quantum Mechanics"

Other books of possible use for this course:

Stephen Wolfram, "Mathematica: A system for Doing Mathematics by Computer" -

(On occasion we may have computer assignments, this is a useful reference. )

Feynman, Leighton, and Sands: "The Feynman Lectures on Physics, part III."

(The quantum part of a truly wonderful series of 3 "introductory" physics books.)

M. Boas, "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" (very useful for

mathematical tricks and techniques you may have forgotten)Required Work: Problem sets are an essential part of this class. One problem set will be assigned approximately every week, (usually) on Wednesdays, due at the start of class the following Wednesday. Group study is fine (encouraged!) as long as you always generate your final solutions by yourself. Homework solutions will be posted by my office, with a copy in the library. These may be borrowed briefly for copying. (Please be considerate of your classmates.) Late homeworks will not be accepted.

Grades and Exams:

Exams are tentatively scheduled for Thursday evening, Feb 19 (7:30 PM), and

Thursday evening, Apr 2 (7:30 PM). Please report conflicts to me right away.

Our final exam will be held Friday, May 8, 7:30-10:30 PM.

The tentative total grade weighting will be approximately:

Problem sets: 40% (lowest will be dropped) 1/3 of that 40% will be based on your solution set the week you grade - see separate info on peer grading

Mid Terms: 17.5% each (=> 35%)

Final Exam: 25%

There is also a possibility of a final project/report/presentation: to be discussed...

Computer info:

We have a WWW page: http://spot.colorado.edu/~pollocks/current_class.html

Copies of hw assignments, brief summaries of classes, late announcements, and occasionally extra credit problems will be there. If you just have a quick question, feel free to email me. ("Virtual office hours") I will answer your questions directly, and will also post the question (anonymously!) and my solution on the web. If you're stuck you might want to look to see if someone else has already asked the same question.

There may be a couple of computer assignments this semester - you can use any language on any machine, but I encourage you to use Mathematica ("Mma"). I can provide you with a brief written Mma tutorial, but we will not spend class time on it. If you have no computer experience, let me know, and I can help you get started.

Reading Assignments: We will follow, roughly, the second half of Gasiorowicz this semester. Reading the textbook before class is highly encouraged. It will allow you to concentrate on understanding the lecture instead of taking lots of notes and trying to make sense of them later... (Each hw will also have a required reading assignment)

Tentative syllabus: Section I: (Gas Ch. 14, 15) Spin, matrices, magnetic interactions, addition of angular momentum.

Section II: (Gas. Ch. 16, 17, 18) Time independent perturbation theory, and applications to real atoms. Spin-orbit coupling, hyperfine splitting, Zeeman and Stark shifts, multi-electron systems, and the variational principle.

Section III: (Gas. Ch. 13, 21, 22, 23) Time dependent perturbation theory, radiation, "quantum electrodynamics", collisions, and scattering.

(+ assorted cool topics, given time: Lasers, atom trapping, BEC, NMR, neutrino oscillations, EPR (spooky action at a distance),... (Other topics of interest to you?)