Quantum Mechanics I

This is a textbook on non-relativistic quantum mechanics that emphasizes clarification of the nature of the basic postulates and the interpretation of the theory. It contains special material, often only accessible in scientific journals, on bound states, scattering theory, and both analytical and approximation techniques. Applications to many branches of physics are given. Among the topics covered are one-dimensional problems, angular momentum, two-particle systems, symmetry transformations, collision theory, the WKB method, and stationary and time-dependent perturbation and variational techniques. Particles in an electromagnetic field, many-body systems, atoms, and radiation theory are studied. The book is a considerably improved and completely updated English translation of a very successful Spanish textbook and is aimed at students in their second year of university.

The first edition of this book was published in 1978 and a new Spanish e(, tition in 1989. When the first edition appeared, Professor A. Martin suggested that an English translation would meet with interest. Together with Professor A. S. Wightman, he tried to convince an American publisher to translate the book. Financial problems made this impossible. Later on, Professors E. H. Lieband W. Thirring proposed to entrust Springer-Verlag with the translation of our book, and Professor W. BeiglbOck accepted the plan. We are deeply grateful to all of them, since without their interest and enthusiasm this book would not have been translated. In the twelve years that have passed since the first edition was published, beautiful experiments confirming some of the basic principles of quantum me- chanics have been carried out, and the theory has been enriched with new, im- portant developments. Due reference to all of this has been paid in this English edition, which implies that modifications have been made to several parts of the book. Instances of these modifications are, on the one hand, the neutron interfer- ometry experiments on wave-particle duality and the 27r rotation for fermions, and the crucial experiments of Aspect et al. with laser technology on Bell's inequalities, and, on the other hand, some recent results on level ordering in central potentials, new techniques in the analysis of anharmonic oscillators, and perturbative expansions for the Stark and Zeeman effects.