PHYS 486 :: 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: Aug 22, 2024.

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The reading assignments are strongly recommended accompanying reading to the lectures. They 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. They are my own notes for holding lecture, so I cannot give any guarantee for legibility, and they may contain mistakes.

To work with the code exercise notebooks for discussion, see the info on using Google Colab.

Week	Date	Lecture Topics	Reading	Homework	Discussion
1	8/27	Introduction (Notes)	Preface; 1.1-1.5	no HW	no Discussion
	8/29	Postulates and wave-particle duality (Notes)	1.1-1.5
2	9/3	Schrodinger equation and wave function (Notes)	1.1-1.5	HW 1 (due 9/10)	Disc. 1 worksheet Disc. 1 code exercise See the info on using Google Colab!
	9/5	Solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation	2.1
3	9/10	Solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation	2.2, 2.6	HW 2 (due 9/17)	Discussion 2
	9/12	Solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation.	2.2, 2.6
4	9/17	Formalism	3; Appendix A	HW 3 (due 9/24)	Discussion 3
	9/19	Formalism	3; Appendix A
5	9/24	Formalism	3; Appendix A	HW 4 (due 10/1)	Discussion 4
	9/26	Formalism	3; Appendix A
6	10/1	The Uncertainty principle	3; Appendix A	HW 5 (due 10/8)	No discussion
	10/3	MIDTERM 1
7	10/8	The harmonic oscillator	2.3	HW 6 (due 10/15)	Discussion 5
	10/10	The harmonic oscillator	2.3
8	10/15	The Schrodinger equation in 3D	4.1	HW 7 (due 10/22)	Discussion 6
	10/17	Angular momentum and radial equation	4.3
9	10/22	Angular momentum and radial equation	4.3	HW 8 (due 10/29)	Discussion 7
	10/24	Radial equation and hydrogen atom	4.1, 4.2
10	10/29	Radial equation and hydrogen atom	4.1, 4.2	HW 9 (due 11/5)	Discussion 8
	10/31	Spin	4.4
11	11/5	Spin	4.4	HW 10 (due 11/12)	No discussion
	11/7	MIDTERM 2
12	11/12	Identical particles	5.1	HW 11 (due 11/19)	Discussion 9
	11/14	Identical particles	5.2
13	11/19	Quantum information: entanglement and measurement		HW 12 (due 12/3)	Discussion 10
	11/21	Quantum information: entanglement and measurement
FALL BREAK
14	12/3	Bonus		HW 13 (due 12/10)	Discussion 11
	12/5	Bonus
15	12/10	Bonus		No HW	No Discussion
FINAL: 12/13