To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Scattering in one dimension is discussed in terms of wave packets; reflection, transmission, and tunneling probabilities are defined; the WKB method to calculate these probabilities is introduced; the S-matrix for scattering in one dimension is defined; the phase-shift method for one-dimensional parity-invariant potentials is introduced; applications to various combinations of finite and infinite barriers with delta-function potentials are examined.
Spinor wave functions; classical Lagrangian and Hamiltonian of a charged particle in an electromagnetic field, and its quantum Hamiltonian; gauge invariance; spin magnetic moment in a uniform magnetic field; magnetic resonance; the Stern--Gerlach experiment; neutron interferometry and rotations of spinor wave functions; treatment of a particle in a uniform magnetic field with and without the inclusion of spin degrees of freedom; Ahronov--Bohm effect for a charged spinless particle confined in a cylindrical shell.
Several experimental facts cannot be explained by classical physics (Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell’s equations): the observed black-body radiation spectrum, the stability of atoms and associated spectral lines, the heat capacities of solids, and several others. The problems posed in this chapter are meant to illustrate and analyze the failure of classical physics in explaining these phenomena and how this failure points to the need for a radically new treatment.
Equivalent derivations of time-dependent pertubation theory; Fermi golden rule; the Born approximation for scattering from Fermi golden rule; survival probability of a state in a time-independent perturbation; positronium in static and oscillating magnetic fields; hydrogen atom in a time-dependent electric field; a model for inelastic scattering of a projectile with a target; semiclassical treatment of the electromagnetic field; ionization of the hydrogen atom by an electromagnetic wave; cross sections for stimulated absorption and emission in hydrogen; spontaneous emission and selection rules with an application to the 2p to 1s transition in hydrogen; theory of the line width; formal scattering theory; S- and T-operators.
General derivation of the eigenvalues and eigenstates of the square and z-component of the angular momentum; relationship between the angular momentum and the harmonic oscillator in two dimensions; transformation of states and operators under rotations; algebraic derivation of the hydrogen atom spectrum.
Bound states in one-dimensional finite and infinite wells and delta-function potentials, and combinations of these, are obtained; the WKB method for bound states is introduced; the consequences of a parity-invariant potential for the eigenfunctions are derived.
Exchange and permutation operators; symmetrizer and antisymmetrizer; two bosons or two fermions in a central potential; scattering amplitudes of two identical particles in a central potential; the Fermi gas; theory of white dwarf stars; the Thomas-Fermi approximation for many-electron atoms.
Wave-particle duality and the Davisson-Germer experiment are briefly discussed; wave packets are defined and their features, including phase velocity, group velocity, and spreading, are examined; the stationary phase method is presented; free-particle wave functions are introduced, and the equivalence between coordinate- and momentum-space representations of these wave functions is emphasized.
Euler angles and rotation matrices; construction and properties of the rotation matrices; transformation of irreducible tensor operators under rotations; fine-structure of the hydrogen atom; hydrogen atom in a magnetic field: Zeeman and Paschen-Back effects; hyperfine structure of the hydrogen atom; tensor operators; time reversal and irreducible tensor operators.
Explicit solution of the hydrogen-like atom and isotropic harmonic oscillator radial equations by the technique of power series expansion; WKB derivation of the hydrogen-like spectrum; virial theorem; the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator in plane polar coordinates; the two-body problem and the center-of-mass and relative position and momentum operators.
Construction ofunitary operators inducing space and time translations, and rotations; the anti-unitary operator inducing time reversal; consequences of invariance under a symmetry transformation; periodic potentials and Bloch waves; the Kronig-Penney model; the ammonia molecule and broken parity symmetry; consequences of time reversal invariance on the scattering amplitude of spinless particles; Kramers degeneracy.
The Schroedinger equation for a particle in a potential is introduced and the general properties of its solutions are discussed; the uncertainity relations are derived; the Gram--Schimdt procedure for orthonormalizing a set of independent wave functions is introduced; the time evolution of the expectation values of the position and momentum operatorsfor a particle in a potential and in an electromagnetic field are derived.
This book contains more than 300 problems in quantum mechanics with accompanying solutions, covering topics that are commonly taught in first-year graduate physics programs. Special care is given to each problem's formulation, with detailed and extensive solutions provided to support understanding. The problems span a range of difficulties, from basic exercises to more challenging applications and extensions of the standard material. Students are required to think critically and incorporate physics and mathematical techniques learned previously or concurrently to solve the more challenging problems. Each chapter begins by framing the particular topic being examined with a short theory section that sets the context for and motivates the problems that follow. This text is well suited for self-study or as a useful supplement to the existing quantum mechanics textbooks for upper-undergraduate and graduate students, and their instructors.
In this chapter we consider two examples of the situation when the classicalobservables should be described by a noncommutative (quantum-like)probability space. A possible experimental approach to find quantum-like correlationsfor classical disordered systems is discussed. The interpretation ofnoncommutative probability in experiments with classical systems as a resultof context (complex of experimental physical conditions) dependence ofprobability is considered.