Physics 137A Sec. 1

  Fall 2009

Berkeley Physics Department 

LECTURES:       

Mon Wed Fri 9:00 - 10:00am 102 

DISCUSSION: 

Mon 1:00 - 2:00pm 3 Evans
Wed 4:00 - 5:00pm 9 Evans
(No meeting the first week)

Ivo Souza       isouza@berkeley.edu
                       Office hours:   Wed 10:30 - 11:30am 543 Birge
                                               Thu   9:30 - 10:30am 543 Birge
                                               and by appointment

GSI (a.k.a. TA): 

Grigol Ovanesyan  ovanesyan@berkeley.edu
                               Office hours: Thu 11-noon 421 Birge Hall

READER (a.k.a. grader):

GRADING: 

35% homework       
25% two midterms (in class)  
40% final exam

PROBLEM SETS:

Weekly problem sets are due by 5pm sharp of the due date (typically Friday) in the appropriate dropbox inside 251 LeConte ("reading room"). Homework that is  up to 3 days late will count 50%, and beyond 3 days late will not be graded. The lowest homework grade will be dropped. 

• Midterms are scheduled for Wed October 7^th and Mon November 16^th (in class). They are closed-book, and you are allowed one two-sided sheet of handwritten notes. Bring paper and a calculator.
  

• Final exam: Friday December 18^th 8:00 - 11:00am (exam group 16) (location TBA)
  

TEXTBOOK:

Quantum Mechanics, by B.H. Bransden and C.J. Joachain

My plan is to cover the following material in the order indicated:

1. Blackbody radiation (1/2 week)
• Cavity modes
• Rayleigh-Jeans theory
• Planck theory
  
  
2. Electrons and photons (1/2 week)
• Photoelectric effect
• Compton effect
  
  
3. The atomic nucleus (1 week)
• Rutherford scattering
• Size of nucleus
  
  
4. Bohr theory (1/2 week)
• Bohr theory
• Wilson-Sommerfeld quantization rules
• Correspondence principle
  
  
5. Particles and waves (1 week)
• Phase and group velocity
• DeBroglie waves
• Heisenberg uncertainty principle
  
  
6. Mathematics (1 week)
• Fourier theory
• Dirac delta function
• Wave packets
  
  
7. Schrodinger theory and wave mechanics (1-1/2 weeks)
• Schrodinger equation
• Conservation of probability
• Separation of space and time in Schrodinger's equation
• Properties of wave functions
• Observables, operators, and expectation values
  
  
8. Potential steps, barriers, and wells (2-1/2 weeks)
• Traveling and standing waves
• Step potentials
• Barrier potentials
• The finite square well
• The infinite square well
• Simple harmonic oscillator in 1-dimension
• Dirac bracket notation and Hermitian operators
• One-dimensional simple harmonic oscillator: operator method
  
  
9. Formal structure of quantum mechanics (2 weeks)
• Postulates
• The uncertainty principle
• Matrix formulation
• Heisenberg equation of motion
  
  
10.  Three-dimensional problems (3-1/2 weeks)
• Free particles
• Particles in a three-dimensional box
• Three dimensional simple harmonic oscillator
• Spherically symmetric potentials - the hydrogen atom
  

• Problem set 1 and solution
  
• Problem set 2 and solution
  
• Problem set 3 and solution
  
• Problem set 4 and solution
  
• Problem set 5 and solution
  
• Problem set 6 and solution
  
• Problem set 7 and solution
  
• Midterm 1 (with solutions) and grade histogram
• Problem set 8 and solution
  
• Problem set 9 and solution
  
• Problem set 10 and solution
• Problem set 11 (last problem set, due Friday Dec. 4th)