Physics 501: Quantum Mechanics II (winter 2008)

General Info

The class will take place in Henn 302 on Wednesdays and Fridays 12:30-14:00 to avoid a conflict with the Theory Seminar.

Office hours: none scheduled at the moment. Feel free to accost me at anytime.

Course outline (PDF)

Information about the final project (PDF)

NEW Presentation schedule

This is the final, definitive schedule.

Fri, April 11, 12:30 - 3, Henn 302

Mills, William Joseph: Non-abelian gauge symmetries
Karimi, Hamed: Exact solution for the hydrogen spectrum using the Dirac equation
Ramshaw, Brad (Brad): Photon bunching
Zhu, Zhihuai: Quantum computing: the database search problem

Mon, April 14, 1:00-3:30pm, Henn 302

Ning, Hailong: Rabi Oscillations
Martinuk, Mathew Alexander: Quantum weak measurement
Gill, Ramandeep Sunny: Vacuum polarization and effective actions
Thomas, Evan Cameron: The Schwinger effect ( particle-anti particle pair production)

Tue, April 15, 1:00-3:30pm, Henn 301

Nakahara, Hiroko (Hiro): Path integrals for identical bose particles
Ku, Mark Jen-Hao: Superconductivity
Yang, Shuhang: Lamb shift
Smadella, Michael Robert:

Reading material and references

This list will grow as the course progresses.
The on-line supplementary material to Gasiorowicz can be found on Wiley's webpage at the Student Companion Site.

The density operator is defined in Supplement 20-C to Gasiorowicz. There are also good discussions in Abers and in Sakurai.
A list of references for the first 4 weeks of the course.
The most recent volume of Physics in Canada (Vol. 63, No. 4) is devoted to Quantum Information and Quantum Computing. There is lots of interesting stuff there, offering an up-to-date view on the topics we have been discussing in class.
Summary notes on the general formalism for normal modes.
To learn the basics about phonons, you can read Kittel's `Introduction to Solid State Physics', chapters 4 and 5. For more a technical description, go to Ashcroft and Mermin, `Solid State Physics', chapters 21-24, and Appendices L and M.
Quantization of light is covered in a simple way in Supplement 18-A to Gasiorowicz. If you want more details, the discussion in Abers Chapter 11 is quite exhaustive.
Summary notes on Coherent States.
For notes on detailed balance, see Gasiorowicz Supplement 1-A.
The Dirac equation is covered well in Shankar "Principles of Quantum Mechanics", chapter 20.
Path integrals are covered well in both Sakurai and in Abers.

Problem Sets

PS 1, due Wednesday, Jan 23

PS 2, due Wednesday, Feb 6

PS 3, due Friday, Feb 29

PS 4, due Wednesday, Mar 12

PS 5, due Friday, Mar 28

PS 6, due Monday, Apr 14