Up: PHYS 30101
The main recommended book for this course is the one by Rae. Although it can be a bit brief on some of the applications of quantum mechanics, it is one of the few books that discusses quantum information at an appropriate level. Some supporting material and a list of misprints can be found in this pdf document. More detail on the applications to atomic and nuclear physics can be found in Gasiorowicz's book and on its website. This book is my favourite reference for these topics. Another good, traditional textbook on the subject is Mandl's, which is part of the Manchester Physics Series. It takes a more mathematically thorough approach, which some people prefer. A new book aimed at other mathematically trained scientists as well as physicists is the one by Miller. This covers a number of interesting modern applications. Just don't expect it to be an easy read because the title says it's "for engineers"! If you feel that you need to remind yourself about the basics of quantum mechanics, you should look back at Phillips's book, which was recommended for last year's Introduction to quantum mechanics (PHYS 20101). If you want to get back up to speed on the mathematical methods that we'll be using, you should look at Boas's book, which was recommended for Maths of waves and fields (PHYS 20171) last year. The most relevant sections are: 13.1-7 (PDEs), 12.6-7 (orthogonal functions) and 3.6-11 (matrices and their eigenvectors). Finally, Inward bound is a wonderful account of the development of the important ideas in quantum mechanics and particle physics. It's by a physicist who was either there at the time, or knew the people who were. |
4th September 2013
Up: PHYS 30101