PHYS 331 : Course Syllabus

Course Faculty

	Name	E-mail	Phone	Office	Office Hours
Course Leader:	Craig J Copi	cjc5	368-8831	Rock 210	Most afternoons

Text

There is one required text for the course:

Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics 2nd edition (ISBN: 0-13-111892-7).

Lecture Times

The course meets MWF, 11:30AM-12:20PM, ROCK 303

Topics Covered

In this course we will mostly follow the textbook. The goal is to cover the first five chapters. Although this may not sound like a lot of material, it is! We most likely only cover selected topics in chapter 5.

• Statistical interpretation of the wave function
• Time-dependent Schrödinger equation
• Measurement
• The uncertainty principle
• Time-independent Schrödinger equation: stationary states
• Solving the time independent Schrödinger equation in 1 dimension: infinite and finite square well, free particle, harmonic oscillator, delta-function potential, scattering in 1D.
• Quantum mechanics formalism: Hilbert space, observables as Hermitian operators, statistical interpretation
• Dirac notation
• Solving Schrödinger equation in 3D: spherical coordinates, angular momentum, Hydrogen atom
• Spin
• Addition of angular momentum
• Identical particles (maybe)
• Quantum statistical mechanics (maybe)

Bulletin Board

A bulletin board has been created for this course. The PHYS 331 general course bulletin board is for general discussions of this course material. The main reason for having a forum is that it supports displaying equations using TeX.

Homework

The problem sets can be found elsewhere. There will be almost-weekly individual problem sets that will typically be due on Mondays. In doing problems, you are required to use good problem solving techniques.

Solutions must be turned in by the end of class, 12:30PM, on the day they are due.

Exams

Three exams will be held during class time, from 11:30-12:20PM, in a room to be determined. Exams will be open book (this means the course textbook only).

Note: The following dates are tentative and subject to change.

• Exam I: Wednesday, September 23, Location: Nord 204
• Exam II: Wednesday, October 14, Location: Nord 204
• Exam III: Friday, November 20: Nord 204

Final Exam

The final exam for the course will be on Wednesday December 09, 2009 from 8:30-11:30 AM, in TBD. All students must take the final exam to pass the course.

Course Grading Scheme

Please check your grades online. If there are errors you must report them to me by the time of the final exam to get them corrected.

Problem Sets:		30%
3 In-class Exams		15% each
Final Exam		25%
Total		100%