Updates:

• 6/9/11   Graded finals are in mailboxes and grades have been submitted. Statistics for final (Ave/out of, [stdev]):
  Q1: 26.5/40 [6.9]
  Q2: 26.7/40 [5.9]
  Q3: 18.0/30 [6.4]
  TOT: 71.2/110 (65%) [9.7] max=90, min=52

  HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

• 6/7/11   Solution to the final exam.
• 5/10/11   Graded midterms are in mailboxes. The statistics are as follows (Ave/out of, [stdev]):
  Q1: 14.2/20 [4.4]
  Q2: 24.6/30 [6.1]
  Q3: 16.1/30 [4.2]
  TOT: 54.9/80 [9.1] max=69, min=30
• 5/9/11   Solution to midterm is posted on daily coverage page.
• 4/11/11   References for Levinson's theorem. Levinson proved his theorem in 1949 (in a paper in German), and there have been many extensions and simplifications over the years. Here are references to two more recent papers that discuss alternative methods of proof, using Sturm-Louiville theory: Z.-Q. Ma, J. Math Phys. 26 (8) 1985, "Proof of the Levinson theorem by the Sturm-Liouville theorem," and Z. Iwinski, L. Rosenberg & L. Spruch, PRD 31 (1985) 1229, "Nodal structure of zero-energy wave functions: New approach to Levinson's theorem." The latter appears most similar to the heuristic discussion given in lecture.

Index

Office hours and contact information

• Prof. Steve Sharpe   srsharpe@uw.edu   B406 PAB  685-2395
• Office hours: 1:30-2:30pm, Thursdays, and by appointment.
• TA: Max Hansen   mth28@uw.edu   B426 PAB  543-5074
  • Office hour: 4:30-5:30pm Thursdays.

Texts

• This quarter we are changing texts to:
  "Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals," by Kurt Gottfried and Tung-Mow Yan (Springer)
  although we will also continue to make use of the 517-8 text at the beginning of the quarter
  "Modern Quantum Mechanics," by J.J. Sakurai (Addison Wesley)
  Gottfried and Yan is a more advanced text, but also includes a good discussion of the material covered so far in 517-8. I expect it to be complementary to Sakurai.
• Other useful reference texts are listed here .

Course Structure and Syllabus

• The 80 minute sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays will be used for lectures---sometimes included (ungraded) pretests to give me an idea of your background knowledge. The 50 minute sessions on Fridays will be a mix of lecture, homework Q&A sessions, discussion of past HWs, and review for midterm and final exams.

  An approximate syllabus is as follows:

  • Identical particles and the Helium atom (Gottfried and Yan [GY] Ch.6 and Sakurai [Sak.] Ch. 6)
  • Scattering: elastic (GY Ch.8, Sak. Ch 7) and a little inelastic (GY Ch.9)
  • Quantization of the EM field and radiative transitions (GY Ch.10)
  • Second quantization (GY Ch. 11)
  • Dirac equation and some applications (GY Ch. 12)
  We will not cover all the material from GY on each topic, but rather aim to understand the essentials and some applications.

  I will keep a log of what has been covered on the daily coverage page, which will also indicate any material not covered in lecture that you should read about. Last year's daily coverage page is here .

• Holidays.
  • There will be no class on Memorial day (Monday, May 30tht).
• Homework.
  • There will be almost weekly homework sets, usually due on Fridays (changed from Wednesdays to avoid conflict with E&M homework).
  • You are encouraged to discuss the assignments with classmates, but the solutions you turn in must be your own work.
  • Working on assignments in a timely fashion is an important part of the learning process. Late work will be accepted at the class meeting subsequent to the due date, but with a 50% penalty. Late assignments will only be accepted by prearrangement, and only under exceptional circumstances.
  • Solutions will be posted on the HW link.
• Exams. There will be two exams in this class:
  • The midterm is tentatively scheduled for Monday, May 9th, in class. It will thus be 80 minutes long.
  • The final exam time given to us by the UW schedule is Wednesday, June 8th at 8:30am. As in last quarter, I propose to chane this to Tuesday, June 7th, 10:30-12:20, to avoid having the exam on the same day as that for EM.
  Exams will be closed book, and I expect the Friday session prior to each exam to include some reivew. More details will be posted closer to the dates.

Course Grade

• Your course grade will be determined by scores on homework (25-40%), midterm (20-30%) and final (30-45%). I will maximize each student's score while varying the relative percentages in the stated ranges (with the constraint that they add up to 100%!).

Useful links

• Watch this space!