PHYS 486 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Schedule
Warning: schedule may shift as we go through the course.
The table below shows the topics we will cover in the course as well as the schedule for discussions, homework, and exams. Exact lecture dates for the topics may shift as the course progresses. If you have any issues logging in to view any of the secured documents below, please try adding "uofi\" (without the quotes) in front of your netid.
The reading assignments are strongly recommended accompanying reading to the lectures. They refer to chapters in Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 3rd Ed.
Lecture notes for each week's lectures are available for download on Thurs or Fri. They are provided as a help in looking back what was covered, not to replace reading, or taking your own notes during lecture. They are my own notes for delivering lectures, so I cannot give any guarantee for legibility.
To work with the code exercise notebooks for discussion, see the info on using Google Colab.
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| Week | Date | Topic | Reading | Discussions | Homework | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
20 Jan 22 Jan |
Introduction | G Preface, G § 1.1-4 |
no discussions this week |
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| 2 |
27 Jan 39 Jan |
G 1.5-6 G 2.1-2 |
|
HW1 (due 2/3) solutions |
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| 3 |
3 Feb 5 Feb |
infinite square well, cont'd the postulates of QM finite square well |
G 2.1-2 G 2.6 (bound |
D02, solutions |
HW2 (due 2/10) solutions |
|
| 4 |
10 Feb 12 Feb |
free particle SHO position space (plot of eigenfunctions/values) |
G 2.4 G 2.3.2 |
D03 |
HW3 (due 2/17) solutions |
|
| 5 |
17 Feb 19 Feb |
Hermitian operators Review and synthesis |
G 3.1-3.3 |
D04, solutions |
HW4 (due 3/3) solutions Practice problems for exam 1 |
|
| 6 |
24 Feb 26 Feb |
Exam I intro to computational assignments |
G 3.1-3.6 |
D05, solutions |
(due 4/3)
|
|
| 7 |
3 Mar 5 Mar |
Commutation relations and uncertainty SHO take II: operators |
G 2.3.1 G 3.5-3.6 |
D06, solutions |
HW5 (due 3/10) solutions |
|
| 8 |
10 Mar 12 Mar |
Matrix reps of ops, aspects of time evolution 3D, central potentials |
G 4.1 G 4.2, 4.3 |
D07, solutions |
HW6 (due 3/24) solutions |
|
| spring break | ||||||
| 9 | 24 Mar 26 Mar |
Angular equation Angular momentum |
G 4.3 G 4.4 |
D08, solutions |
HW7 (due 3/31) solutions |
|
| 10 | 31 Mar 2 Apr |
Matrix representations, first look at spin review and synthesis |
G 4.1.3, 4.3.2
|
D09, solutions |
HW8 (due 4/14) solutions Practice problems for exam 2 |
|
| 11 | 6 Apr 9 Apr |
Exam II, solutions Radial equation (free particle) |
G 4.2 | D10, solutions |
Computational assignment 2 (due 5/1) |
|
| 12 | 14 Apr 16 Apr |
Radial equation: coulomb potential tensor products and entanglement |
G 5.1 |
D11, solutions |
HW9 (due 4/21) solutions |
|
| 13 | 21 Apr 23 Apr |
Bell states, identical particles identical particles, sketch of atoms |
G 5.2
|
D12, solutions |
HW10 (due 5/28) solutions |
|
| 14 | 28 Apr 30 Apr |
scattering in one dimension |
G 2.5, 2.6; 2.4 |
D13, solutions |
Practice problems for the final |
|
| 15 | 5 May |
Review and synthesis |
G § 4.4 |
Extra credit Computational HW: must be turned in by 5/TBD |
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| 16 | TBD May |
Final exam: TBD |
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