Physics 610B Quantum Mechanics Fall 2007

Instructor: Dr. Calvin Johnson

Office: P-135

Phone: 594-1284

e-mail: cjohnson@sciences.sdsu.edu

web page: www.physics.sdsu.edu/~johnson/phys610b/

Recommended text:R. Shankar, Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 2^nd Ed.

Meeting location: P-149

Class time: TuTh 4:00-5:15 p.m.

Office hours: Tu Th 3:00-4:00 p.m., or by appointment (or drop-by)

Homework: 1/3

Midterm (sometime the last two weeks of October, TBA): 1/3

Class project: 1/3 (essentially an involved calculation, either computational or analytic. requires both a written report, on the order of 7-10 pages, and an oral presentation to the class, approximately 15-20 minutes)

Grade: 90%= A, 87%=A-, 83%=B+, 80%= B, 77%=B-, 73%=C+, 70%=C, 67% C- ,

63%=D+, 60%=D, 57%=D-, 50%=F.

Topics to be covered and readings in text:

Review of time-independent perturbation theory (Shankar 17)

WKB approximation (Shankar 16.2)

Review of harmonic oscillator; creation and annihilation operators (Shankar 7.4)

N particles systems; bosons and fermions (Shankar 10 + handouts)

Addition of angular momentum (Shankar 15)

Symmetries and selection rules (Shankar p. 458-459)

Time-dependent perturbation theory (Shankar 18)

Scattering theory (Shankar 19)

Dirac equation (if time permits) (Shankar 20)

Other useful text: N. Zettili, Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications (many detailed examples, but also many typos);