Physics 115A Web Page, Spring 2006

Professor Steven Carlip

E-Mail carlip@physics.ucdavis.edu

Office hours: TW 11-12 (or email for an appointment), Room 437 Phys/Geo

Prof. Carlip's Physics Department Web site

TA: Jerry Vigil

E-Mail vigil@physics.ucdavis.edu

Office hours: M 3-4, T 3-4, W 3-4, R 3-5, Room 101 Phys/Geo

Grader: Solomon Obolu

E-Mail obolu@physics.ucdavis.edu

Office hours (for questions about grading): WF 4-5, Room 436 Phys/Geo

Announcements

• Problem 2 of homework 2 didn't quite make sense. A new version is now on line; due date changed to Wednesday, April 26.

What's here

• Class syllabus (pdf)
• Reading assignments
• Homework
• Information about the midterm
• Midterm solutions
• Information about the final exam
• Occasional notes about matters discussed in class
• Some links to sites with class-related material

Warning!

1. April 3: Griffiths sections 1.1-1.4
2. April 5: Griffiths problem 1.14
3. April 7: Griffiths sections 1.5-1.6, problem 1.7
4. April 17: Griffiths section 2.1
5. April 19: Griffiths section 2.2
6. April 24: Griffiths section 2.3
7. May 1: Griffiths section 2.4
8. May 3: Griffiths section 2.5
9. May 10: Griffiths section 2.6, problem 2.52
10. May 15: Griffiths sections 3.1-3.2
11. May 19: Griffiths section 3.3
12. May 22: Griffiths sections 3.4-3.5
13. May 26: Griffiths section 3.6
14. May 29: Griffiths example 3.8
15. June 2: Griffiths 12.1, 12.2, 12.4

Homework problems will be posted here as they become available.

Homework solutions will be available on the MyUCDAVIS website for this course. They will only be accessible to registered students.

• Homework 1
• Homework 2 (corrected version)
• Homework 3
• Homework 4
• Homework 5
• Homework 6
• Homework 7

The midterm will be held Friday, May 5, and will cover chapter 1 and sections 2.1 to 2.4 of Griffiths, along with any additional material I may have gone over in class. The exam will consist of two parts: a set of "short answer" questions, and a set of problems to solve. In each section, you will have some choice -- you will be able to skip at least one question.

The exam is not "open book," but you may bring one sheet of notes (both sides of a standard 8 1/2x11 inch sheet of paper), including anything you want. Here is a set of notes I think you may find useful; you can add to this, subtract from it, or rewrite it as you wish. If you need to do any integrations, the exam will have a small integration table that will include any complicated integrals you will need (and some you will not...).

Solutions are posted on the course MyUCDAVIS website

Mean: 60, standard deviation: 18

The final is scheduled for Wednesday, June 14, from 10:30-12:30, in the regular classroom. It will be a comprehensive exam, covering the entire course; there will be questions or problems from every chapter we've covered.

The final will be similar in structure to the midterm. It will have two parts:

1. Short answers -- few or no calculation, but you may have to think carefully about how to apply concepts.
2. Problems -- similar in structure to midterm problems. At least one problem in this section will be almost identical to a problem that appeared on the midterm, and at least one will be almost identical to a homework problem.

For each section, you will have some choice of problems to do or to skip.

You may bring two sheets of notes (both sides of each sheet). Here are some notes that I find useful---you can use these, add to them, or ignore them as you wish. The exam will include a table with any integration formulas I think you will need.

Warning: These notes won't help much if you haven't studied enough; there is too much in the course for you to find the right equation on the fly. I would encourage you to use your notes as a study guide -- be sure you understand the equations.

• A derivation of the probability current
• A slightly simplified derivation/discussion of raising and lower operators
• A sample calculation for a superposition of harmonic oscillator states

• Hitachi R&D has a movie showing the formation of a double slit interference pattern by electrons, one electron at a time.
• Here is a page on undergraduate quantum mechanics experiments, including a version of the Grangier experiment that I discussed in class. The page on the Grangier experiment includes a link to a pdf file of a nice reprint of a paper describing details of the experiment.
• Physics 2000, from the University of Colorado, is a bit elementary for this course, but has some good introductory material and some nice Applets. I especially recommend the electron interference Applet in the ``Atomic Lab'' section.
• Here is an applet that lets you add two plane waves with different frequencies, and directly view the difference between phase velocity and group velocity.
• From Syracuse University, here is an Applet showing the scattering of a quantum wave from a potential barrier.
• Here is a group in Austria doing interesting experiments in basic quantum mechanics, including interference of Buckyballs (see ``An interferometer for large molecules'' under ``research'').
• A fairly understandable explanation of Planck's black body spectrum is here.
• Position and momentum wave functions are related by Fourier transforms. Here is a nice illustration of some Fourier transforms, with some explantions, by Davis's own Randy Harris.
• Here is an applet that lets you visualize solutions to the one-dimensional Schr{\"o}dinger equation for various potentials. You can find energy eigenstates, or superpose them (with phases you can choose) to create time-dependent states.
• Here is a large collection of applets illustrating interference, wave packet propagation, potential steps and barriers, wave functions and energy levels in various potentials, superpositions of stationary states, etc.
• Here is an applet that will solve numerically for wave functions in potentials of your choosing.
• If you have some time to kill, Compadre is a large collection of resources about quantum mechanics. It's designed for teachers, but they don't ask for ID...
• Here is a PostScript file of a nice talk on entanglement and quantum computing, with a good description of the difference between classical and quantum correlations.
• Here is a nice (though slightly old) physics book list, covering quantum mechanics and many other subjects at many levels.