Physics 215C (Spring 2012)

SYLLABUS: 

Physics 215A and 215B usually cover a standard "core" set of topics.  But quantum mechanics is an extremely broad field with ongoing new developments that have yet to make it into the textbooks.  For this reason, the topics addressed in 215C tend to be rather open ended, and variable.  Subject to revision as the quarter proceeds, below are some of the topic I would like to touch upon: 

Scattering:

• Landauer Transport theory for electrical conduction
• Elastic and Inelastic scattering (dynamical structure factor)

Miscellaneous: 

• Entanglement and Bell's Inequality 
• Quantum Computation (in brief)
• Feynman path integrals (instantons and tunneling)

 Many-body Topics:

• Quantum Transverse Field Ising Model (Jordan-Wigner in 1d)
• Second quantization for non-relatvistic Bosons/Fermions (revisited) 
• Weakly Interacting Bosons; Superfluidity and Symmetry breaking
• Non-relativistic Fermi gas (continuum and tight-binding model)
• Quantized Electromagnetic field
• Dirac Theory in 1d, 2d and 3d

Textbooks: The book by Sakurai used in 215A and 215B will be helpful when we discuss scattering, and the second edition of Sakurai has an extended chapter 7 including second quantizations, and an 8th chapter touching upon the Dirac equation.  But no single textbook covers the breadth of topics that we might discuss. I will try to make suggestions for textbooks/reading which might be helpful as we go along.