Updates:

• 3/17/11   Exams and last HWs are in your mailboxes. Here is the link to the 519 web page . Links to HW and solutions have been taken down.
  Have a great break!
• 3/17/11   Averages (standard devs.) on final exam were: Q1: 7.1/20 (5.9); Q2: 10.6/25 (8.3); Q3: 20.5/30 (7.2); Q4: 28.5/35 (6.4) TOTAL: 66.6/110 (20).
• 2/17/11   Midterms have been returned to your mailboxes. Averages (stand. dev.) were: Q1: 23.5/27 (4.5); Q2: 12.5/15 (4.8); Q3: 22/38 (12.1); TOTAL: 58/80 (18).

Index

Office hours and contact information

• Prof. Steve Sharpe   srsharpe@uw.edu   B406 PAB  685-2395
• Office hours: Thursdays 1:30-2:30, and by appointment (or drop-in). I will usually be in my office from 4-5 on Tuesdays, but not all weeks.
• TA: Andrew Lee   ajylee@uw.edu   B426 PAB  543-5074
• Office hours: Thursdays 3-4.

Texts

• We use the same required text as in the first quarter of the course, Physics 517. This is:
  "Modern Quantum Mechanics," by J.J. Sakurai (Addison Wesley)
  However, for the third quarter (PHYS 519), the required text will be
  "Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals," by Kurt Gottfried and Tung-Mow Yan (Springer)
  since this book contains more advanced material not covered in Sakurai. I encourage you to get a copy of Gottfried and Yan already this quarter, if you haven't already done so. It provides an excellent, albeit rather succint and more formal, discussion of the material we cover in 517-8. It is, in other words, a complementary text 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 80 minute sessions on Fridays will be a mix of lectures, exam reviews, and discussion of qual questions.

  An approximate syllabus is Chs. 3-5 of Sakurai, with additional material added in places. In a little more detail this is

  • Density matrices; mixed versus pure ensembles.
  • Rotations, and the groups SO(3) and SU(2).
  • Angular momentum in QM, including addition of angular momenta.
  • Tensor operators and the Wigner-Eckart theorem.
  • 3-d Schrodinger equation and application to the hydrogen atom, including Runge-Lenz vector.
  • Discrete symmeries: parity (recap from 517) and time-reversal.
  • Time-independent perturbation theory and applications to hydrogen-like atoms
  • Time-dependent perturbation theory and applications including Fermi's Golden rule
  • Adiabatic approximation and Berry phases.

  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. This link also archives class notes (which I will endeavor to post before each lecture), pretests, handouts and solutions to the midterm and final. Last year's daily log (to give you an idea of what we really covered) is here,

• Holidays.
  • There will be no classes on Martin Luther King day (Monday, January 17th) or on President's day (Monday, February 21st).
• Homework.
  • There will be weekly homework sets, probably due on Fridays in class, probably eight sets in all.
  • You are encouraged to discuss the assignments with classmates, but the solutions you turn in must be your own work.
  • Late assignments will not be accepted, unless prearranged due to exceptional circumstances.
  • Solutions and statistics on scores will be posted on the HW link.
• Exams. There will be two exams in this class:
  • The midterm will tentatively be on either Monday, Feb 14th or Wednesday, Feb 16th, in class.
  • Our final exam time will be Tuesday, March 16th, 10:30-12:20 in A114.
  Exams will be closed book, and I plan to use the Friday session prior to each to have a review session. 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! Suggestions welcome.