The URL of this page is http://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/P5382fa15/

Physics 5382 - Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

Course Information

Fall 2015

Lecturer: Professor Randall J. Scalise
Meeting time and place: TR 11:00AM-12:20PM in room 60 Fondren Science Building
Office hours: after lecture and MWF 1:00PM-2:30PM in room 107 Fondren Science Building
Contact:
- Call or leave a message at 768-2504, or
- Leave a note in the Physics Department Office - 102 Fondren Science, or
- send me e-mail: <scalise@smu.edu>
Exam Dates: Open book, open notes, open Mathematica, closed internet.
- Midterm - Thursday 8 October 2015 in class
- Final - Saturday 12 December 2015, 8:00AM-11:00AM in room 60 Fondren Science Building
Mathematica tutorial: PDF 4 pages, 32563 bytes
Grading:
- Homework - 60% (drop lowest)
- Midterm Examination - 20%
- Final Examination - 20%
Text: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David J. Griffiths
Lecture notes:
- 25Aug15. See also the description of Max Planck's "trick" in Eisberg and Resnick, sections 1.2-1.4, especially page 16. Hilbert space from Wikipedia and from Wolfram
- 27Aug15.
- 01Sep15. See also Complex numbers, Roots of Unity, Eigenvalues and eigenvectors.
- 03Sep15. See also Gaussian Integrals and Separation of Variables.
- 08Sep15. See also Particle in a box.
- 10Sep15. See also Expectation value and Schrödinger cat states.
- 15Sep15. See also Particle in a two-dimensional box, Sound matrix.
- 17Sep15. See also Hermite polynomials.
- 22Sep15. See also Ladder operators (Raising and lowering operators), Creation and annihilation operators.
- 24Sep15. See also Aleph null.
- 29Sep15. See also
  - Georg Cantor's diagonalization proof
  - Fourier transform from Wikipedia
  - Fourier transform
  - sinc(x)=sin(x)/x function - Fourier transform of top-hat function
  - Plancherel theorem
  - Parseval's theorem
  - Dirac delta function from Wikipedia
  - Dirac delta function from Wolfram World
  - PHYS 4321 slides on the Dirac delta
- 01Oct15. See also Delta potential
- 06Oct15 - Midterm examination preparation
  - Quantum Mechanics Conceptual Survey
  - Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey DO NOT ENTER YOUR SMU STUDENT ID NUMBER!
- 15Oct15.
- 20Oct15. See also
  - Finite square well bound states
  - Finite square well scattering states
- 22Oct15. See also Quantum tunnelling
- 27Oct15.
- 29Oct15. See also
  - When I was your age, we programmed in BASIC. And we liked it. Not really.
  - First-order Euler method for solving differential equations
  - Runge-Kutta method
  - Numerical solution for the SHO - first-order Euler
  - Numerical solution for the square well with a bump - first-order Euler
  - Numerical solution for the SHO - Mathematica built-in differential equation solver
- 03Nov15.
- 05Nov15. See also SpectralDecomp Mathematica notebook
- 10Nov15. See also Del in cylindrical and spherical coordinates
- 12Nov15. See also Legendre functions
- 17Nov15. See also Hydrogen wavefunctions
- 19Nov15. See also Angular momentum operator
- 24Nov15. See also Levi-Civita symbol
- 01Dec15. See also L=1 3x3 matrices - Mathematica notebook, PDF version, The SO(4) symmetry of hydrogen, The SO(4) symmetry of the hydrogen atom (slides).
- 03Dec15. See also Complete set of commuting observables(CSCO)
Homework: Due dates are strictly enforced. 50% if late; 0% once the solutions are posted. You may work together, but the work that you turn in should be unique. Identical work will receive a grade that is divided among all parties. It is possible to find answers to some homework problems on the internet; do not do this. The point, after all, is not to fool me into thinking that you have learned physics, but rather actually to learn some physics.
- homework #1 (PDF format) - due Monday 31 August at 11:59:59PM
- homework #2 (PDF format) - due Monday 7 September at 11:59:59PM
- homework #3 (PDF format) - due Monday 14 September at 11:59:59PM
- homework #4 (PDF format) - due Monday 21 September at 11:59:59PM
- homework #5 (PDF format) - due Monday 28 September at 11:59:59PM
- No homework due on 5 October because of the midterm exam.
- No homework due on 12 October because of Fall Break.
- homework #6 (PDF format) - due Monday 19 October at 11:59:59PM
- homework #7 (PDF format) - due Monday 26 October at 11:59:59PM
- homework #8 (PDF format) - due Monday 2 November at 11:59:59PM
- homework #9 (PDF format) - due Monday 9 November at 11:59:59PM
- homework #10 (PDF format) - due Monday 16 November at 11:59:59PM
- homework #11 (PDF format) - due Monday 23 November at 11:59:59PM
- No homework due on 30 November because of Thanksgiving Break.
- homework #12 (PDF format) - due Monday 7 December at 5:00:00PM
Homework Solutions
Disability Accommodations, Religious and Excused Absences
Official University Calendar
Other Resources:
- Heisenberg and the early days of quantum mechanics by Felix Bloch
- EPR Paradox
  - Is the Moon there when nobody looks? Reality and the quantum theory by N. David Mermin, Physics Today, April 1985, p38.
  - Quantum Mysteries Revisted N. David Mermin, Am. J. Phys 58, p731, (1990)
  - Does Bell's Inequality rule out local theories of quantum mechanics?
  - Quantum 'spookiness' passes toughest test yet
  - Experimental loophole-free violation of a Bell inequality using entangled electron spins separated by 1.3 km
- Quantum Mechanics by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, and Frank Laloe
- Quantum Mechanics: Classical Results, Modern Systems, and Visualized Examples by Richard W. Robinett
- Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications by Nouredine Zettili
- MIT Open Courseware (Physics)
- The Theoretical Minimum - Quantum Mechanics
- Quantum Field Theory: Lecture Log
- Quantum Computing & the Entanglement - John Preskill on YouTube
- Quantum Mechanics III (Physics 125c) by Sean Carroll, Physics Department, Caltech
- Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll
- Boojums All the Way Through by N. David Mermin

Back to Professor Scalise's Home Page