Lectures on Quantum Mechanics

Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg combines exceptional physical insight with his gift for clear exposition, to provide a concise introduction to modern quantum mechanics, in this fully updated second edition of his successful textbook. Now including six brand new sections covering key topics such as the rigid rotator and quantum key distribution, as well as major additions to existing topics throughout, this revised edition is ideally suited to a one-year graduate course or as a reference for researchers. Beginning with a review of the history of quantum mechanics and an account of classic solutions of the Schrödinger equation, before quantum mechanics is developed in a modern Hilbert space approach, Weinberg uses his remarkable expertise to elucidate topics such as Bloch waves and band structure, the Wigner–Eckart theorem, magic numbers, isospin symmetry, and general scattering theory. Problems are included at the ends of chapters, with solutions available for instructors at www.cambridge.org/9781107111660.

Preface; Notation; 1. Historical introduction; 2. Particle states in a central potential; 3. General principles of quantum mechanics; 4. Spin; 5. Approximations for energy eigenstates; 6. Approximations for time-dependent problems; 7. Potential scattering; 8. General scattering theory; 9. The canonical formalism; 10. Charged particles in electromagnetic fields; 11. The quantum theory of radiation; 12. Entanglement; Author index; Subject index.

Steven Weinberg is a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments at the University of Texas, Austin. His research has covered a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics and cosmology and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics, the National Medal of Science and the Heinemann Prize in Mathematical Physics. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Britain's Royal Society and other academies in the US and abroad. The American Philosophical Society awarded him the Benjamin Franklin medal, with a citation that said he is 'considered by many to be the preeminent theoretical physicist alive in the world today'. His books for physicists include Gravitation and Cosmology, the three-volume work The Quantum Theory of Fields, and most recently, Cosmology. Educated at Cornell University, the University of Copenhagen and Princeton University, he also holds honorary degrees from sixteen other universities. He taught at Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University – where he was Higgins Professor of Physics – before moving to Texas in 1982.