Synopses & Reviews
This up-to-date text for advanced physics undergraduates and first year graduate students focuses on that portion of quantum theory which is based on the Schrödinger wave equation. Key topics rarely found in quantum mechanics texts are included, such as chapters on the hydrodynamic formulation of wave mechanics, and the Wigner function. The work also discusses properties of quantum theory in terms of classical concepts. The first two chapters concentrate on the development of quantum theory, including the various pathways which led to the discovery of quantum mechanics and the human factors involved. Then, building upon this firm historical foundation, the authors discuss the solutions of the Schrödinger equation, the most basic tool for the quantum approach to almost all of the problems of the physical states of atoms and molecules. The hydrodynamic interpretation is elaborated and the text concludes with physical and mathematical appendices, and a comprehensive bibliography with references to both historically significant and contemporary review articles.
Table of Contents
PART I: Introduction
1. The Birth of Quantum Theory
2. Classical Physics -- Quantum Physics
PART II: Schrodinger's Equation and the Interpretation of its Solutions
3. Schrodinger's Equation
4. The Probabilistic Interpretation of the Wavefunction
5. The Motion of a Free Particle in Wave Mechanics
6. The Momentum of a Particle and the Fourier Transformation of the Wavefunction
7. Description of Experiments in Wave Mechanics and the Heinsberg Uncertainty Principle
8. A Charged Particle in an Electromagnetic Field
9. The Hydrodynamic Formulation of Wave Mechanics
10. The Spin of the Electron and Pauli's Equation
11. The Hydrodynamic Picture of Wave Mechanics of a Particle with Spin
12. Ehrenfest's Equations
13. Description of Particle Motion in Phase Space -- Wigner's Function
14. Mixed States
PART III: Solution of Schrodinger's Equation
15. Classification of Solutions to Schrodinger's Equation
16. Bound States and Energy
17. Scattering States and Collision Cross-Sections
18. Partial Waves and Wave Effects in Scattering
19. Resonance States
20. The Coulomb Potential
21. The Harmonic Oscillator
22. A Uniform Magnetic Field
23. Particle Motion in a Bounded Region
24. Motion in a Field of Spatially Periodic Forces
PART IV: Approximate Methods of Solving the Schrodinger Equation
25. The Classical Limit of Wave Mechanics and the WKB Method
26. Numerical Solutions of Schrodinger's Equation
27. Perturbation Theory for the Time-Dependent Schrodinger Equation
28. Application of Perturbation Theory: The Zeeman and Stark Effects
29. Time-Dependent Perturbations
30. Induced Emission and Absorption of Radiation
31. Spontaneous Emission
PART V. Relativistic Wave Mechanics
32. The Klein-Gordon Equation
33. Dirac's Equation
34. The Non-Relativistic Limit of the Dirac Equation
PART VI. The Wave Mechanics of Many-Particle Systems
35. Schrodinger's Equation for Systems of Many Particles
36. The Relationship of Spin to Statistics
37. The Hartree-Fock and Thomas-Fermi Equations
PART VII. Conclusion