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)
Solution		 -
1/23 Transformations; translation symmetry. 6.1, 6.2
2 1/28 Symmetry, conservation laws; parity, rotations. 6.3 - 6.8 HW2 (due 2/4)
Solution 		Discussion 1
Solution
1/30 Symmetry and degeneracy 6.3 - 6.8
3 2/4 Free electron gas
Additional notes on band structure 		5.3.1,2 HW3 (due 2/11)
Solution 		Discussion 2
Solution
2/6 No lecture (Prof. Pfaff has to attend a funding review)  
4 2/11 Time-independent perturbation thy. 7.1 HW4 (due 2/18)
Solution
Computational part (due 3/14) 		Discussion 3
Solution
2/13 Degenerate perturbation thy. 7.2
5 2/18 Hydrogen fine-structure 7.3 Practice exam (due 2/25 for bonus)
Solution 		Discussion 4
Solution
2/20 Addition of angular momenta 4.4.3
6 2/25 Review HW 5 (due 3/4)
Solution 		No Discussion in the MT week
2/27 MT 1 (In-class) (Solution)
7 3/4 Minimal coupling, Zeeman effect 4.5.1, 7.4 HW 6 (due 3/11) Discussion 5
Solution
3/6 Zeeman effect and hyperfine splitting 7.4, 7.5
8 3/11 Variational principle 8.1,2 HW 7 (due 3/25) Discussion 6: numerical homework session.
(Attendance not graded.)
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 Geometric phases 11.5 HW 11 (due 4/29) Discussion 10
4/24 coupling to EM fields 4.5
14 4/29 TBD 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)