How to Be a Quantum Mechanic is an introduction to quantum mechanics at the upper-division level. It begins with wave-particle duality and ends with a brief introduction to the Dirac equation. Two attitudes went into its writing: Examples are the best way to get into a subject, and numbers and equations alone do not always sum to understanding. The author taught for 40 years at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, in experimental elementary-particle physics in the group led by Luis Alvarez.
1. Strangest things
2. The Schrodinger Equation. Bound States
3. Simple Approximations for Bound States
4. Scattering in One Dimension
5. Mathematical Formalism
6. The Harmonic Oscillator
7. Uncertainty Relations. Simultaneous Eigenstates
8. Angular Momentum
9. Hydrogen. The Isotropic Oscillator
10. Spin 1/2 Particles
11. Hyperfine Splitting. Two Angular Momenta. Isospin
12. Cryptography. The EPR Argument. Bell's Inequality
13. Time-Independent Perturbation Theory
14. Identical Particles
15. Time-Dependent Perturbations. Planck and Einstein
16. Scattering in Three Dimensions
17. The Dirac Equation
Biography
Charles G. Wohl taught for 40 years at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. at Berkeley, in experimental elementary-particle physics in the group led by Luis Alvarez.
