PHYSICS 401

Quantum Physics I

Fall 2003

Instructor: Professor Philip G. Roos T.A.: Young-noh Yoon

Office: Physics 2220B Office: Physics 3101

Phone: 405-6103 Phone: 405-6189

Email: roos@physics.umd.edu Email: mystyle@physics.umd.edu

Text: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, David J. Griffiths, Prentice Hall, Inc.,

Upper Saddle River NJ, 1995

Supplementary Text: An Introduction to Quantum Physics, A.P. French and E.F. Taylor, Norton and Company, Inc., New York, 1978

Introduction to Modern Physics, John D. McGervey, Academic Press, New York, NY, 1983

The course is, as indicated by the title of the text, is an introduction to the topic of quantum mechanics. After the development of classical physics with Newtonian Mechanics and Maxwell’s equations for electromagnetic theory, I am sure that many of the physicists of that era were convinced that most of physics was understood. However, with the increasingly sophisticated experiments being carried out, one began to see phenomena that could not be explained with the classical theories. Such problems were in general observed when making measurement on microscopic systems, such as atoms. Eventually these inadequacies in the theory led to the development of quantum mechanics, starting in 1925, by such physicists as Schrodinger (wave formulation), Heisenberg (matrix formulation), and Dirac who showed the equivalence of the two formulations and developed a general formalism using abstract vector spaces. Of course numerous other physicists have contributed to the development of the field of quantum mechanics over the intervening years. The course will begin with a review of some of the phenomena that showed the problems with classical description. We then will introduce the Schrodinger wave equation and the basic formulation of quantum mechanics. This will be followed by applications to one dimensional systems. The final topic this semester will be the application of quantum mechanics to three dimensional systems, specifically the hydrogen atom.

Homework will be assigned weekly and will be collected a week later at the beginning of class. The homework will be graded and returned with solutions the following week. Homework is an important aspect of learning physics, and I encourage you to work with and to discuss the problems and solutions with other students in the class.

There will be two one-hour exams and a two-hour final during the semester. The first exam will be on Wednesday, October 8 and the second on Wednesday, November 12. The date and time of the final exam appears to be Saturday, December 21 from 8-10 am – unless we can change it to a better time.

The final grade will be based on the following weighting: 20% for homework, 50% for the two one-hour exams, and 30% for the final exam.

My office hours are 11-12 on Monday and Friday. Otherwise you should make an appointment with me for a specific time. You are also welcome to visit my office at any time and if I am available I will be glad to help.

Mr. Yoon will choose office hours based on the homework due date, and you will be informed.