FYSS7531 Quantum Mechanics II A, fall 2018

Lecturer: Tuomas Lappi, office FL240

Teaching assistant: Sami Demirci, office FL347

Course page in korppi

Course page in koppa, with lecture materials

Generalities

The classes for QMIIA will meet on Monday from 10 to 14 (with a lunch break in between) and on Wed from 10 to 12. The division of these between lectures and exercises will not follow the labeling in korppi. The plan for the weekly schedule is to proceed in the following way:

Before Monday's class you must read the given reading assignments for each week. With the help of these you should solve some simple preliminary exercise problems and be prepared to discuss your solutions in class on Monday.

On Monday we will first discuss the solutions to the homework problems from the previous week (except for the first week). We will then take a break for lunch and at 12 move to discuss in groups the solutions to the preliminary exercises and then discuss them on the blackboard. The lecturer can also discuss on the blackboard any other questions you have on the reading assignment material.

After the Monday class you should start working on the main homework exercise problems. The class on Wed will be a tutorial session for working on these problems together. The solutions must be returned in writing, every student individually, by Friday 15h.

NB: every week there are two sets of exercise problems:

The preliminary exercises which you should do while reading the assignment, these will be discussed in groups in class on Monday.
The written exercises, for which you hand in your solutions in writing by Friday afternoon. Note: written solutions to these exercises will not be distributed, only discussed in class; for anything that was not clear you are welcome to ask the lecturer/TA

Literature

The course does not follow a single set of lecture notes. In stead, at this stage you should get used to following a variety of different sources. Every student is expected to get access to at least two of the following sources at any time

"Modern Quantum Mechanics" by J.J. Sakurai (older edition, you might try looking for this online), newer edition by J.J. Sakurai and J. Napolitano (should become available in FYS4). The lecturer strongly recommends you acquire this book and keep it at your side at every hour of the day and night. The older edition is fine for the A-part of the course, but lacks a discussion of the quantized electromagnetic field that will be needed in part B, this has been added in the new edition.
Lecture notes of Tero Heikkilä from the 2017 course, available in the koppa page above
Lecture notes of Kimmo Tuominen from Helsinki, available in koppa
Lecture notes of Kari J. Eskola, URL and password will be sent by email
Kvanttimekaniikka II by J. Niskanen (in Finnish, available in FYS4, for sale at LIMES)
Quantum Mechanics, by Bransden and Joachain (available in FYS4)

Grading

The preliminary exercises contribute 20%, the written exercises 40% and the exam 40%. If you cannot make it to class on Monday and want to get credit for the preliminary exercises, you can return your solutions in writing (paper or scanned pdf) to the lecturer by Monday at 14h. The exam will be an oral exam, date to be agreed later. If you request, we may also choose to take a written exam in stead, but this must be agreed with the lecturer separately.

Weekly agenda, preliminary problems

Week 1 class Mon Sep 10 at 10-12: reminder of elementary quantum mecanics
Week 2 class Mon Sep 17: time dependent perturbation theory
Week 3 class Mon Sep 24: coupling of matter to a classical electromagnetic field
Week 4 class Mon Oct 1: scattering theory basics (Lippmann-Schwinger equation, Born approximation)
Week 5 class Mon Oct 8: more scattering theory (optical theorem, partial waves)
Week 6 class Mon Oct 15: basics of rotations (symmetries and groups, representations, rotations)
Week 7 class Mon Oct 22: more rotations (addition of angular momenta, spherical tensor operators, Wigner-Eckart theorem)

Homework exercises

Exercise 1, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Sep 12 at 10-12, return Fri Sep 14th, solutions discussed in class Mon Sep 17th
Exercise 2, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Sep 19 at 10-12, return Fri Sep 21st, solutions discussed in class Mon Sep 24th
Exercise 3, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Sep 26 at 10-12, return Fri Sep 28th, solutions discussed in class Mon Oct 1st [typos in problems corrected Sep 27th]]
Exercise 4, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Oct 3 at 10-12, return Fri Oct 5th, solutions discussed in class Mon Oct 8th
Exercise 5, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Oct 10 at 10-12, return Fri Oct 12th, solutions discussed in class Mon Oct 15th
Exercise 6, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Oct 17 at 10-12, return Fri Oct 19th, solutions discussed in class Mon Oct 22nd
Exercise 7, discussed in the tutorial session (laskupaja) Wed Oct 24 at 10-12, return Fri Oct 26th, solutions discussed in class Mon Oct 29th

Exam

Updated list of exam questions, posted 24.10.
Book a time slot for your exam at (doodle link)