Quantum Physics

Textbook for a modern course on quantum physics for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Michel Le Bellac (Author), Patricia de Forcrand-Millard (Translated by)

9781107602762, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 December 2011

606 pages, 155 b/w illus. 2 tables 130 exercises
24.7 x 17.5 x 2.9 cm, 1.19 kg

'This book is well written and the author speaks with authority on the subject.' Contemporary Physics

Quantum physics allows us to understand the nature of the physical phenomena which govern the behavior of solids, semi-conductors, lasers, atoms, nuclei, subnuclear particles and light. In Quantum Physics, Le Bellac provides a thoroughly modern approach to this fundamental theory. Throughout the book, Le Bellac teaches the fundamentals of quantum physics using an original approach which relies primarily on an algebraic treatment and on the systematic use of symmetry principles. In addition to the standard topics such as one-dimensional potentials, angular momentum and scattering theory, the reader is introduced to more recent developments at an early stage. These include a detailed account of entangled states and their applications, the optical Bloch equations, the theory of laser cooling and of magneto-optical traps, vacuum Rabi oscillations and an introduction to open quantum systems. This is a textbook for a modern course on quantum physics, written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

1. Introduction
2. Mathematics of quantum mechanics I: finite dimension
3. Polarization: photons and spin 1/2 particles
4. Postulates of quantum mechanics
5. Systems with a finite number of levels
6. Entangled states
7. Mathematics of quantum mechanics II: infinite dimension
8. Symmetries in quantum physics
9. Wave mechanics
10. Angular momentum
11. The harmonic oscillator
12. Elementary scattering theory
13. Identical particles
14. Atomic physics
15. Open quantum systems
Appendices
References.

Subject Areas: Quantum physics [quantum mechanics & quantum field theory PHQ], Physics [PH], Mathematics & science [P]