PHYSICS 3544 - Quantum Mechanics III

This course will introduce Dirac's bra-ket formulation of quantum mechanics and make students familiar with various approximation methods applied to atomic, nuclear and solid-state physics, and to scattering. Content will include: Dirac's formulation of quantum mechanics: kets and bras, quantum oscillator, angular momentum, measurement, Bell's inequality, generalised Uncertainty Principle, connection with wave and matrix mechanics. Time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory, Schrodinger, Heisenberg and Interaction pictures, radiative transitions. Identical particles, atoms, exchange forces, periodic systems, energy bands in solids. Symmetries, translations in space and time, parity and time reversal, rotations and angular momentum, addition of angular momenta, fine structure of Hydrogen, L-S and j-j coupling in atoms and nuclei. Hartree-Fock and Thomas-Fermi approximations, variational and WKB methods. Scattering: Born approximation, S-matrix, partial waves.