PHYS 487 Spring 2025
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 14, 2025.
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The reading assignments are refer to chapters 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. Use them at your own risk; they may contain mistakes.
| Week | Date | L. Topics | Reading | Homework | Discussion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/21 | Introduction and review | up to 5.2 | HW1 (due 1/28) | - |
| 1/23 | Transformations | 6.1, 6.2 | |||
| 2 | 1/28 | Symmetry and degeneracy | 6.3 - 6.8 | HW2 (due 2/4) | Discussion 1 |
| 1/30 | Symmetry and degeneracy | 6.3 - 6.8 | |||
| 3 | 2/4 | Free electron gas and band structure | 5.3.1,2 | HW3 (due 2/11) | Discussion 2 |
| 2/6 | Time-independent perturbation thy. | 5.3.1-2 | |||
| 4 | 2/11 | Time-independent perturbation thy. | 7.1 | HW4 (due 2/18; computational part due 3/14) | Discussion 3 |
| 2/13 | Degenerate perturbation thy. | 7.1 | |||
| 5 | 2/18 | Hydrogen fine-structure | 7.2 | - | Discussion 4 |
| 2/20 | Hydrogen fine-structure | 7.3 | |||
| 6 | 2/25 | Review | HW 5 (due 2/27) | - | |
| 2/27 | MT 1 (In-class) | ||||
| 7 | 3/4 | Addition of angular momentum | 7.5 | HW 6 (due 3/11) | Discussion 5 |
| 3/6 | Zeeman effect and hyperfine splitting | 4.5 | |||
| 8 | 3/11 | Variational principle | 8.1,2 | HW 7 (due 3/19) | Discussion 6 |
| 3/13 | Variational principle | 8.1,2 | |||
| Spring break: 3/15 - 3/23 | |||||
| 9 | 3/25 | Time-dependent perturbation theory | 11.1 | HW 8 (due 4/1; computational part due 5/2) | Discussion 7 |
| 3/27 | Rabi model | 11.1 | |||
| 10 | 4/1 | Emission and absorption of radiation | 11.2 | - | Discussion 8 |
| 4/3 | Spontaneous emission and Fermi's golden rule | 11.3 | |||
| 11 | 4/8 | Review | HW 9 (due 4/15) | No Discussion | |
| 4/10 | MT 2 (In-class) | ||||
| 12 | 4/15 | Adiabatic approximation | 11.5 | HW 10 (due 4/22) | Discussion 9 |
| 4/17 | Adiabatic theorem | 11.5 | |||
| 13 | 4/22 | Adiabatic approximation | 11.5 | HW 11 (due 4/29) | Discussion 10 |
| 4/24 | Adiabatic theorem | 11.5 | |||
| 14 | 4/29 | Geometric phases | HW 12 (due 5/6) | Discussion 11 | |
| 5/1 | Quantum information: multi-component systems and decoherence | 12 | |||
| 15 | 5/6 | Overview: Frontiers in quantum (information) science | - | - | - |
| 5/8 | Reading day | ||||
| TBD | FINAL (time and location TBD) | ||||