PHYS 487 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Schedule

The table below shows the topics we will cover in the course. Exact lecture dates for the topics may still shift, though.
Last updated: Jan 5, 2024.

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The reading assignments are strongly recommended accompanying reading to the lectures. They refer to chaptes in Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 3rd Ed.

Lecture notes are available for download after each lecture (up to a day or two delay). 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 holding lecture, so I cannot give any guarantee for legibility, and they may contain mistakes.

Week	Date	L. Topics	Reading	Homework
1	1/16	Introduction and review	up to 5.2	HW1 (due 1/23) Solution
	1/18	Transformations	6.1, 6.2
2	1/23	CLASS CANCELLED		HW2 (due 1/30) Solution
	1/25	Symmetry and degeneracy	6.3 - 6.8
3	1/30	Symmetry and degeneracy	6.3 - 6.8	HW3 (due 2/6) Solution
	2/1	Free electron gas and band structure	5.3.1-2
4	2/6	Time-independent perturbation thy.	7.1	HW4 (due 2/13) Solution
	2/8	Time-independent perturbation thy.	7.1
5	2/13	Degenerate perturbation thy.	7.2	HW 5 (due 2/20) Solution
	2/15	Hydrogen fine-structure	7.3
6	2/20	Review		HW 6 (due 2/27) Solution
	2/22	MT 1 (In-class) (Solution)
7	2/27	Zeeman effect, Hyperfine splitting	7.5	HW 7 (due 3/5) Solution
	2/29	EM coupling	4.5
8	3/5	No lecture		HW 8 (due 3/19) Solution
	3/7	No lecture
Spring break: 3/9 - 3/17
9	3/19	Variational principle	8.1, 8.2	HW 9 (due 3/26) Solution
	3/21	Variational principle, intro to WKB	8.3, 8.4
10	3/26	Time-dependent perturbation thy. -- intro	11.1	HW 10: MT2 practice (due 4/2) Solution
	3/28	The Rabi model	11.1
11	4/2	Emission and absorption of radiation	11.2	HW 11 (due 4/9) Solution
	4/4	MT 2 (In-class) (Solution)
12	4/9	Spontaneous emission and Fermi's golden rule	11.3	HW 12 (due 4/16) Solution
	4/11	Spontaneous emission and Fermi's golden rule	11.4
13	4/16	Adiabatic approximation	11.5	HW 13 (due 4/23)
	4/18	Adiabatic theorem	11.5
14	4/23	Quantum information: basics	12; John Preskill's lecture notes, chapters 1+2.	HW 14 (due 4/30)
	4/25	Quantum information: multi-component systems and decoherence	12; John Preskill's lecture notes, chapters 1+2.
15	4/30	Overview: "Frontiers in quantum (information) science"
	5/2	Reading day
	5/9	FINAL: Thu, May 9, 7-10pm (119 MatSE Building)