Syllabus

The Department of Physics offers a two-semester long sequence of graduate level Quantum Mechanics, Physics 580 and Physics 581. These courses are thought of as a single course, with Physics 580 covering the basic material and Physics 581 the more advanced topics. For Physics 580 I will assume that students are familiar with Quantum Mechanics at the level of an undergraduate course of the type offered here. I will also assume that students are familiar with the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian descriptions of Classical Mechanics, say at the level of Landau and Lifshitz and/or Goldstein. Students should be familiar with the fundamental concepts of linear algebra, vector spaces, and calculus on functions of a complex variable, in particular with the methods of contour integration and residues, as well as with standard material in partial differential equations. Nevertheless, the semester will begin with a prolonged review of the mathematical basics of quantum theory. A rough guide to the semester is as follows.

Mathematical Background
Structures in Classical Mechanics
Quantum postulates
Symmetries in Quantum Mechanics
Spatial quantum systems: the Schrödinger equation
Central potentials
Scattering theory
Perturbation theory
Semi-classical limits
Entanglement and quantum information
Path integrals
© 2019 R.G. Leigh