Professor: Steven J. Pollock

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: Steven.Pollock@Colorado.EDU (anytime)

Lectures: MWF 2 PM in Duane G2B21

Texts:

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

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

Suggested: "Quantum Physics " - S. Gasiorowicz

This is written at a slightly more detailed level than Griffiths, and you may find it very useful as a reference. There will be 2 copies 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 Griffiths, 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"

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, 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 25 (7:30 PM), and Thursday evening, Apr 8 (7:30 PM). (In G-2B41, which is not our classroom!) Please report conflicts to me right away. Our final exam will be held Friday, May 7, 3:30-6:30 PM.

Copies of hw assignments, brief summaries of classes, late announcements, scans of exam solutions and lecture notes, 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 may want 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 basically follow the second half of Griffiths 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)

1) Review: (Griffiths Ch. 1-5), with a special focus on spin and addition of angular momentum (Griffiths 4.4.3)

2) (Ch. 6) Time independent perturbation theory, with applications to the real hydrogen atom.

3) (Ch. 7) The variational principle, with applications to more complex atoms and molecules.

4) (Ch. 8) The WKB approximation.

5) (Ch. 9) Time dependent perturbation theory, radiation - "QED".