Advances In Quantum Dynamics

An accessible introduction to advanced quantum theory, this textbook focuses on its practical applications and is ideal for graduate students in physics.

This book covers advanced topics in quantum mechanics, including nonrelativistic multi-particle systems, relativistic wave equations, and relativistic fields. Numerous examples for application help readers gain a thorough understanding of the subject. The presentation of relativistic wave equations and their symmetries, and the fundamentals of quantum field theory lay the foundations for advanced studies in solid-state physics, nuclear, and elementary particle physics. The authors earlier book, Quantum Mechanics, was praised for its unsurpassed clarity.

An advanced quantum mechanics textbook that provides a unique pedagogical introduction to high-level topics in the field.

There continue at present many developments in the area of quantum mechanics and quantum dynamics in particular, of a very fundamental nature, all the way from implications for the foundations of physics to the influence of quantum mechanics on emerging technologies, such as the areas of quantum semiconductors and quantum computing, both of which are very important examples. It is hoped that the papers in this volume will be able to provide a much needed resource for researchers with regard to current fields of research in this dynamic area.

"Visual Quantum Mechanics" uses the computer-generated animations found on the accompanying material on Springer Extras to introduce, motivate, and illustrate the concepts explained in the book. While there are other books on the market that use Mathematica or Maple to teach quantum mechanics, this book differs in that the text describes the mathematical and physical ideas of quantum mechanics in the conventional manner. There is no special emphasis on computational physics or requirement that the reader know a symbolic computation package. Despite the presentation of rather advanced topics, the book requires only calculus, making complicated results more comprehensible via visualization. The material on Springer Extras provides easy access to more than 300 digital movies, animated illustrations, and interactive pictures. This book along with its extra online materials forms a complete introductory course on spinless particles in one and two dimensions.

In this updated and expanded second edition of a well-received and invaluable textbook, Prof. Dick emphasizes the importance of advanced quantum mechanics for materials science and all experimental techniques which employ photon absorption, emission, or scattering. Important aspects of introductory quantum mechanics are covered in the first seven chapters to make the subject self-contained and accessible for a wide audience. Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Materials and Photons can therefore be used for advanced undergraduate courses and introductory graduate courses which are targeted towards students with diverse academic backgrounds from the Natural Sciences or Engineering. To enhance this inclusive aspect of making the subject as accessible as possible Appendices A and B also provide introductions to Lagrangian mechanics and the covariant formulation of electrodynamics. This second edition includes an additional 62 new problems as well as expanded sections on relativistic quantum fields and applications of quantum electrodynamics. Other special features include an introduction to Lagrangian field theory and an integrated discussion of transition amplitudes with discrete or continuous initial or final states. Once students have acquired an understanding of basic quantum mechanics and classical field theory, canonical field quantization is easy. Furthermore, the integrated discussion of transition amplitudes naturally leads to the notions of transition probabilities, decay rates, absorption cross sections and scattering cross sections, which are important for all experimental techniques that use photon probes.

Renowned physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson is famous for his work in quantum mechanics, nuclear weapons policy and bold visions for the future of humanity. In the 1940s, he was responsible for demonstrating the equivalence of the two formulations of quantum electrodynamics OCo Richard Feynman''s diagrammatic path integral formulation and the variational methods developed by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonoga OCo showing the mathematical consistency of QED. This invaluable volume comprises the legendary lectures on quantum electrodynamics first given by Dyson at Cornell University in 1951. The late theorist Edwin Thompson Jaynes once remarked, OC For a generation of physicists they were the happy medium: clearer and better motivated than Feynman, and getting to the point faster than SchwingerOCO. This edition has been printed on the 60th anniversary of the Cornell lectures, and includes a foreword by science historian David Kaiser, as well as notes from Dyson''s lectures at the Les Houches Summer School of Theoretical Physics in 1954. The Les Houches lectures, described as a supplement to the original Cornell notes, provide a more detailed look at field theory, a careful and rigorous derivation of Fermi''s Golden Rule, and a masterful treatment of renormalization and Ward''s Identity. Future generations of physicists are bound to read these lectures with pleasure, benefiting from the lucid style that is so characteristic of Dyson''s exposition.

It is an indisputable fact that computational physics form part of the essential landscape of physical science and physical education. When writing such a book, one is faced with numerous decisions, e. g. : Which topics should be included? What should be assumed about the readers’ prior knowledge? How should balance be achieved between numerical theory and physical application? This book is not elementary. The reader should have a background in qu- tum physics and computing. On the other way the topics discussed are not addressed to the specialist. This work bridges hopefully the gap between - vanced students, graduates and researchers looking for computational ideas beyond their fence and the specialist working on a special topic. Many imp- tant topics and applications are not considered in this book. The selection is of course a personal one and by no way exhaustive and the material presented obviously reflects my own interest. What is Computational Physics? During the past two decades computational physics became the third fun- mental physical discipline. Like the ‘traditional partners’ experimental physics and theoretical physics, computational physics is not restricted to a special area, e. g. , atomic physics or solid state physics. Computational physics is a meth- ical ansatz useful in all subareas and not necessarily restricted to physics. Of course this methods are related to computational aspects, which means nume- cal and algebraic methods, but also the interpretation and visualization of huge amounts of data.