Syllabus Physics 55100/U3500 Spring 2021

Quantum Mechanics I
New York City College of Technology
Course: Phys 55100/U3500
Professor: Seth Cottrell, cottrell.tech@gmail.com
Class: Zoom, TTh 2:00-3:40

Textbook: Quantum Mechanics, 2nd ed. by Griffiths

Grading: 45% HW, 25% Midterm, 30% Final
Office Hours: MW 2:00-3:00
I don't expect you to be good at math or to know any of the material, but I do expect
you to work hard and ask for help. You are expected to strive to understand the material
presented in this course, to do all of the work yourself, and to ask for help when you get
stuck. Never copy any material from any source at any time, and email me questions
whenever you're stuck or lost.
Seriously, email me all the time. You are not a burden, you are the point.
Cheating will be reported immediately and result in \... disciplinary sanctions, includ-
ing suspension, or expulsion." and a zero on the offending assignment or exam.
Material
We'll be working our way through Griffith's, roughly in the order presented.
Introductory material: 2-slit experiment, matter waves and addition of amplitudes,
superposition principle; Uncertainty principle, properties of matter waves: Boundary con-
ditions and energy level quantization and Schrdinger interpretation-wave equation, appli-
cation to one dimensional problems, barrier penetration, Bloch states in solids and how
bands form in solids; The universality of the Harmonic potential, Simple Harmonic oscil-
lator and applications; One electron atoms, spin, transition rates; Identical particles and
quantum statistics; Beyond the Schrdinger equation: Variational methods and WKB.
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Last Updated: 01/27/2021 16:09