| Instructor: Philip Stamp |
Contact:
- Office: Hennings 311A
-
- office phone: 604-822-5711
|
Lectures: (tentatively) 12:30-14:00 on Mon, Wed and Fri, Jack Bell 224. Precise schedule to be decided.
Grading:
- 50%: assignments
- 50%: final exam
Syllabus: pdf file
What follows is a rough guide to what will be in this course. There is no set book for the course -- there are of course many books at roughly the level of this course, and a list of some good ones is given below. However the course notes, supplemented by selected reading, should suffice as background material. The course will include many examples from different fields of physics. The level of the course will depend to some extent on the audience.
(1) BASICS
Classical Physics: Hamiltonians & Lagrangians, & Symmetries
Wave-functions and density matrices; Schrodinger eqtn.
Quantum Measurements & Entanglement
Basic Theory of Path integrals - derivation of Schrodinger eqtn
(2) FERMIONS & BOSONS
Statistics: fermions, bosons, & anyons
2nd quantization; coherent states
(3) PERTURBATION THEORY
Time-independent theory: expansion in small parameter; diagrammatic representation
Level repulsion
Scattering theory: Born approximation, S-matrix & T-matrix; Resonant scattering, bound states
Time-dependent perturbation theory: Adiabatic & sudden limits; Fermi Golden rule
Landau-Zener formula, Berry phase; asymptotic results
(4) SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATIONS
Classical & Quantum orbits; trace formulae; quantum chaos
WKB and Tunneling, and other non-perturbative effects; topological phase
(5) SPIN & ANGULAR MOMENTUM
Spin & Angular momentum algebra
Scattering off central fields; applications in atomic, nuclear, & condensed matter physics
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen effects; separability; quantum teleportation
Coherent states & path integrals for spin. Spin tunneling & topological spin phase
SOME USEFUL BOOKS
AB Migdal Qualitative Methods in Quantum Theory
LD Landau, EM Lifshitz Quantum Mechanics
K Gottfried Quantum Mechanics
RP Feynman AR Hibbs Quantum Mechanics & Path Integrals
JJ Sakurai Advanced Quantum Mechanics
LS Schulman Techniques & Applications of Path Integrals
LI Schiff Quantum Mechanics
RP Feynman, RB Leighton, M Sands Feynman lectures on Physics, vol III