This page lists what was covered in lectures, reading assignments, and also archives handouts.
To bottom (most recent lectures)| Lecture | Date | Covered in lecture | Reading (not covered or partially covered) |
| 1.1 | 3/31 |
Class organization. Identical particles and helium atom. |
Sakurai 6.1-6.3 and GY 6.1. |
| 1.2 | 4/2 | Permutation operators and application to Helium atom |
Read Sakurai 6.4 and GY 6.2.
We will not cover the material on permutation groups in Sakurai 6.5, nor the atomic shell model discussed in GY 6.3 |
| 1.3 | 4/4 | Question session for HW1, run by TA | |
| 2.1 | 4/7 |
Intro to elastic scattering Scattering amplitude and the PW expansion |
Read GY 8.1 |
| 2.2 | 4/9 |
Complete discussion of general features of PW expansion Derive the optical theorem (following GY 8.1) Which partial waves contributed classically? |
Read Sakurai 7.6 about the PW expansion. |
| 2.3 | 4/11 |
Extended discussion of HW2 Phase-shifts for hard-sphere potential |
|
| 3.1 | 4/14 |
Complete discussion of hard sphere: low and high energy limits Low energy scattering for a general potential: scattering length, effective range and their implications |
Sakurai has the most on these topics: read sections 7.6 and 7.7 |
| 3.2 | 4/16 |
Complete discussion of scattering length,
its relation to bound states, and Levinson's theorem Resonances (Sakurai 7.8) |
Read Sakurai 7.8 |
| 3.3 | 4/18 |
Example of resonant behavior,
including the
spherical well using Mathematica (see lecture 5.1
for notebook) Wavepacket treatment of scattering (see GY 8.1) |
|
| 4.1 | 4/21 |
Completed discussion of wavepackets Lippmann-Schwinger eq. and its derivation (GY 8.2 and Sak 7.1) |
You should make sure you understand how to calculate the overall constant in the free Schrodinger eq. Green functions |
| 4.2 | 4/23 |
Finish derivation of Lippmann-Schwinger Born series (Sak 7.2, GY 8.3) |
|
| 4.3 | 4/25 |
Validity of Born expansion (GY 8.3(b)) Partial wave born approximation and high energy scattering. |
|
| 5.1 | 4/28 |
Eikonal approximation (GY 8.3(c), Sakurai 7.4) Mathematica notebook and PDF used in class (and in lecture 3.3) A little on identical particle scattering? (GY 8.4) |
We will not be covering Coulomb scattering (GY 8.4), spin in scattering (GY 8.5), nor inelastic scattering (GY9). |
| 5.2 | 4/30 | The free EM field: recap classical field theory, Maxwell's equations in covariant form, then use Coulomb gauge and mode expansion to bring to form suitable for quantization. See GY 10.1 | Read GY 10.1(a). |
| 5.3 | 5/2 | Almost complete quantization of EM field | |
| 6.1 | 5/5 |
Really finish quantization of EM field (GY 10.1):
E, B, plus lightning discussions of
uncertainty relations, causality, P, and
helicity. Review of scattering for midterm |
We will not cover GY 10.2 or 10.3, but you should read these sections if you want a deeper understanding of the quantum nature of the EM field. |
| 6.2 | 5/7 | MIDTERM | |
| 6.3 | 5/9 | No class. Post-exam respite. | |
| 7.1 | 5/12 |
Radiative transistions I (GY 10.4) Lecture by Barak Bringoltz. |
|
| 7.2 | 5/14 |
Radiative transitions II (GY 10.4) Again by Barak Bringoltz. |
|
| 7.3 | 5/16 | Discussion session on HW6 run by Ethan Thompson | |
| 8.1 | 5/19 | Introduction to second quantization, mainly for bosons [GY 11.2(a)] | Rea GY 11.1 for an overview, and a dicussion of permutations in more detail than covered in class. |
| 8.2 | 5/21 | Writing the Hamiltonian in second-quantized form | |
| 8.3 | 5/23 | Second quantization for fermions | |
| 9.1 | 5/26 | HOLIDAY! | |
| 9.2 | 5/28 | Bose-Einstein condensation using 2nd-quantized formalism. (GY 11.4a) |
For recap on chemical potential read GY 11.3(a) Background: Baym and Pethick, PRL 76 (1996) 6. |
| 9.3 | 5/30 | Finish discussion of BEC | |
| 10.1 | 6/2 | Introduction to Dirac eq. (GY 13.2) | Read GY 13.1 for nice historical introduction |
| 10.2 | 6/4 | Continuation of Dirac eq. | |
| 10.3 | 6/6 | Review for final exam | |
| 11 | 6/11 | FINAL EXAM (8:30-10:20) |