PHYS 486 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Course Description

486 is an introduction to nonrelativistic quantum mechanics with focus on properties of quantum mechanical objects. Quantum dynamics are not part of this course, and covered in the follow-up course, 487. Main topics:

The Schrodinger equation and it's properties; wave functions
Single particles in 1D, examples include quantum harmonic oscillator and particle-in-a-box
Quantum formalism: Hilbert space, operators
Angular momentum, the Hydrogen atom, spin
Identical particles
A brief introduction to quantum information

4 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: PHYS 214 and PHYS 435 or ECE 329.

Textbook (required)

D. Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Third Edition

Supplemental Texts:

These are other quantum physics textbooks that provide an alternative point of view to Griffiths:

Townsend, A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics
McIntyre, Quantum Mechanics: A Paradigms Approach
Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics
Cohen and Tannoudji, Quantum Mechanics
Shankar, Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Nielsen and Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information