This course is designed for beginning graduate students in the Physics and Applied & Engineering Physics programs. Others are welcome too, of course, but we assume you have already taken a rigorous quantum mechanics course and are familiar with the basic concepts and notation.

The course material, an online text titled A Quantum Mechanics Companion, was developed in the Fall 2025 semester. The students in that semester participated as editors of the document on Overleaf. QMC will be revised in Fall 2026 and students will be "viewers". Only enrolled students will receive Overleaf invitations. Access to QMC is essential, because the weekly homework assignments are taken from the exercises at the ends of chapters. Lectures will closely follow QMC. The weekly reading and homework assignments are announced in lecture.

A few words about QMC from the author:

The most common reaction of my colleagues, on hearing about this project, was "How will your book be any different from the dozens of books already out there?" My short answer to them is that I've tried to minimize formalism and maximize phenomena. Sending them the first chapter was another way of satisfying their curiosity.

Fresh material for a mature subject is important in the age of AI. AIs will only get smarter and more helpful when given new treatments and novel examples. To maximize creative content I did not use AI when writing QMC in 2025. There was one exception: Images of Max Planck doing silly things at the start of every chapter. But there's been a policy change with MS Copilot since then. First, the "Made with AI" tag in the upper right hand corner, and very recently, a ban on historical figures like Planck, as in the above images made before the ban went into effect. Sadly, there will be no planking (or tunneling) Plancks this semester.

Course Information

• Meeting times: M 2:35-3:50, W 3:30-4:45
• Room: Rockefeller 103
• Desert Island Project proposal due date: Monday, October. 5
• Desert Island Project due date: Monday, Dec. 7
• Homework & Readings from QMC announced in lecture
• This course does not have a Canvas site.
• Course grade is based on homework and the Desert Island Project. There are no exams.
• Instructor: Veit Elser, PSB 426, email
• Grader: Jake Parsons, email
• Office hours: Clark 294F, F 6-9pm, Sat/Sun 11am-7pm

Announcements

• "Office hours" provide an environment for students to work together. If you need clarification or some tips on the homework, Prof. Elser is on-call via Zoom 6-9pm Friday. Just email the invitation.
• If your homework is written/printed on multiple pieces of paper, please staple them together.

Weekly Homework & Reading

• (8/31) HW: 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3   Read: Section 2.6 (WKBJ), Chapters 3 & 4

 Desert Island Project topics

Frank Rosenblatt (July 11, 1928 - July 11, 1971)

Invented and built the first AI (perceptron) while working at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory 1957-1958. He built an observatory at his home in Brooktondale to search for extraterrestrial laser sources as evidence of intelligent life.