Quantum Mechanics An Introduction

1 The Quantization of Physical Quantities.- 1.1 Light Quanta.- 1.2 The Photoelectric Effect.- 1.3 The Compton Effect.- 1.4 The Ritz Combination Principle.- 1.5 The Franck-Hertz Experiment.- 1.6 The Stern-Gerlach Experiment.- 1.7 Biographical Notes.- 2 The Radiation Laws.- 2.1 A Preview of the Radiation of Bodies.- 2.2 What is Cavity Radiation?.- 2.3 The Rayleigh-Jeans Radiation Law: The Electromagnetic Eigenmodes of a Cavity.- 2.4 Planck’s Radiation Law.- 2.5 Biographical Notes.- 3 Wave Aspects of Matter.- 3.1 De Broglie Waves.- 3.2 The Diffraction of Matter Waves.- 3.3 The Statistical Interpretation of Matter Waves.- 3.4 Mean (Expectation) Values in Quantum Mechanics.- 3.5 Three Quantum Mechanical Operators.- 3.6 The Superposition Principle in Quantum Mechanics.- 3.7 The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.- 3.8 Biographical Notes.- 4 Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics I.- 4.1 Properties of Operators.- 4.2 Combining Two Operators.- 4.3 Bra and Ket Notation.- 4.4 Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions.- 4.5 Measurability of Different Observables at Equal Times.- 4.6 Position and Momentum Operators.- 4.7 Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Relations for Arbitrary Observables.- 4.8 Angular-Momentum Operators.- 4.9 Kinetic Energy.- 4.10 Total Energy.- 4.11 Biographical Notes.- 5 Mathematical Supplement.- 5.1 Eigendifferentials and the Normalization of Eigenfunctions for Continuous Spectra.- 5.2 Expansion into Eigenfunctions.- 6 The Schrödinger Equation.- 6.1 The Conservation of Particle Number in Quantum Mechanics.- 6.2 Stationary States.- 6.3 Properties of Stationary States.- 6.4 Biographical Notes.- 7 The Harmonic Oscillator.- 7.1 The Solution of the Oscillator Equation.- 7.2 The Description of the Harmonic Oscillator by Creation and Annihilation Operators.- 7.3 Properties of the Operators â and â+.- 7.4 Representation of the Oscillator Hamiltonian in Terms of â and â+.- 7.5 Interpretation of â and â+.- 7.6 Biographical Notes.- 8 The Transition from Classical to Quantum Mechanics.- 8.1 Motion of the Mean Values.- 8.2 Ehrenfest’s Theorem.- 8.3 Constants of Motion, Laws of Conservation.- 8.4 Quantization in Curvilinear Coordinates.- 8.5 Biographical Notes.- 9 Charged Particles in Magnetic Fields.- Coupling to the Electromagnetic Field.- 9.1 The Hydrogen Atom.- 9.2 Three-Dimensional Electron Densities.- 9.3 The Spectrum of Hydrogen Atoms.- 9.4 Currents in the Hydrogen Atom.- 9.5 The Magnetic Moment.- 9.6 Hydrogen-like Atoms.- 9.7 Biographical Notes.- 10 The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics II.- 10.1 Representation Theory.- 10.2 Representation of Operators.- 10.3 The Eigenvalue Problem.- 10.4 Unitary Transformations.- 10.5 The S Matrix.- 10.6 The Schrödinger Equation in Matrix Form.- 10.7 The Schrödinger Representation.- 10.8 The Heisenberg Representation.- 10.9 The Interaction Representation.- 10.10 Biographical Notes.- 11 Perturbation Theory.- 11.1 Stationary Perturbation Theory.- 11.2 Degeneracy.- 11.3 The Ritz Variational Method.- 11.4 Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory.- 11.5 Time-Independent Perturbation.- 11.6 Transitions Between Continuum States.- 11.7 Biographical Notes.- 12 Spin.- 12.1 Doublet Splitting.- 12.2 The Einstein-de Haas Experiment.- 12.3 The Mathematical Description of Spin.- 12.4 Wave Functions with Spin.- 12.5 The Pauli Equation.- 12.6 Biographical Notes.- 13 A Nonrelativistic Wave Equation with Spin.- 13.1 The Linearization of the Schrödinger Equation.- 13.2 Particles in an External Field and the Magnetic Moment.- 14 Elementary Aspects of the Quantum-Mechanical Many-Body Problem.- 14.1 The Conservation of the Total Momentum of a Particle System.- 14.2 Centre-of-Mass Motion of a System of Particles in Quantum Mechanics.- 14.3 Conservation of Total Angular Momentum in a Quantum-Mechanical Many-Particle System.- 14.4 Small Oscillations in a Many-Particle System.- 14.5 Biographical Notes.- 15 Identical Particles.- 15.1 The Pauli Principle.- 15.2 Exchange Degeneracy.- 15.3 The Slater Determinant.- 15.4 Biographical Notes.- 16 The Formal Framework of Quantum Mechanics.- 16.1 The Mathematical Foundation of Quantum Mechanics: Hilbert Space.- 16.2 Operators in Hilbert Space.- 16.3 Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors.- 16.4 Operators with Continuous or Discrete-Continuous (Mixed) Spectra.- 16.5 Operator Functions.- 16.6 Unitary Transformations.- 16.7 The Direct-Product Space.- 16.8 The Axioms of Quantum Mechanics.- 16.9 Free Particles.- 16.10 A Summary of Perturbation Theory.- 17 Conceptual and Philosophical Problems of Quantum Mechanics..- 17.1 Determinism.- 17.2 Locality.- 17.3 Hidden-Variable Theories.- 17.4 Bell’s Theorem.- 17.5 Measurement Theory.- 17.6 Schrödinger’s Cat.- 17.7 Subjective Theories.- 17.8 Classical Measurements.- 17.9 The Copenhagen Interpretation.- 17.10 Indelible Recording.- 17.11 The Splitting Universe.- 17.12 The Problem of Reality.