Quantum Mechanics II (2026 Semester 1)
Lectures: Mondays & Wednesdays 14:00 - 16:00
Discussion/Monitoria: Thursdays 14:00 - 16:00
Classroom: 2022
TA ("Monitor"): Barbara Sales Costa
Prof.: Matthew Luzum (office 3097)
Meeting ID: 996 0423 2432
Passcode: 252823
Homework lists:
Digitize the list and upload to Moodle by the due date
Exams
Midterm exam 1 -- April 22 June 11
Midterm exam 2 -- June 18
Final exam -- June 25
Lectures
March 9 -- Identical particles: Multiparticle states, evolution of multiparticle states, permutation symmetry, indistinguishable particles, 2 electron system (Sakurai Ch 6, Shankar Ch 10)
March 11 -- Identical particles: more than 2 particles, anyons, Young tableaux (Sakurai Ch 6, Shankar Ch 10)
March 16 -- Identical particles: Helium atom, periodic table, nuclear shell model, continuous symetries + conservation laws (Sakurai 6.4, Shankar 13.4)
March 18 -- Symmetries: Symmetry groups, parity (Sakurai 4, Shankar 11)
March 19--Symmetries: Parity, lattice translation (Sakurai 4, Shankar 11)
March 26 -- Symmetries: Time reversal (Sakurai 4, Shankar 11)
March 30-April 2 -- No class (Holy Week)
April 8 -- Density operator, Shannon entropy, Von Neumann entropy (Horodecki)
April 9 -- Quantum entanglement, entanglement entropy, EPR, Bell inequalities (Horodecki)
April 13 -- Scattering: Introduction, cross sections, 2-body kinematics
April 16 -- Scattering: Green's function methods -- Lippmann-Schwinger equation (Sakurai 7.1)
April 20 -- No class (Tiradentes)
April 22 -- Exam 1
April 23 -- [Zoom] Scattering: Born approximation, Optical Theorem (Sakurai 7.2-7.3) [Zoom]
April 27 -- [Zoom] Scattering: Partial waves & phase shifts (Shankar 19.5, Sakurai 7.6) [Zoom] [Link to Recording]
April 30 -- No class
May 4 -- [Zoom] Scattering: Partial waves -- Hard Sphere (Sakurai 7.6-7.7) [Zoom]
May 7 -- No class
May 11 -- Scattering: Partial waves -- Finite spherical well / barrier, Resonance scattering, scattering of identical particles (Sakurai 7.7-7.9) [Link to Recording]
May 14-- Scattering: Symmetry considerations (Sakurai 7.10), Coulomb scattering (Weinberg 7.9), Eikonal approximation (Shajesh notes) [Link to Recording]
May 18 -- No class
May 21 -- No class
May 25-- Scattering: General Scattering Theory - S-matrix and Dyson Formula, Born, Fermi's golden rule, optical theorem (Weinberg) [Link to Recording]
May 28 -- No class
June 1 -- Second quantization: Fock space, creation and annihilation operators, number operator, non-relativistic Hamiltonian (Brown: Quantum Field Theory) [Link to Recording]
June 3 -- Second quantization: momentum space, ground state, equations of motion, relativistic theory, Klein-Gordon equation (Brown) [Link to Recording]
June 4 -- No class (Corpus Christi)
June 8 -- No class
June 11 -- Exam 1 (discrete symmetries, density operator)
June 15-- No Class
June 18 -- Exam 2 (scattering theory)
June 22 -- No Class
June 25 -- Final exam (all topics)
Sugested texts
J.J. Sakurai, "Modern Quantum Mechanics", (chapter numbers refer to Revised edition, not second edition)
A.F.R de Toledo Piza: Mecânica Quântica
Shankar: Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Weinberg: Lectures on Quantum Mechanics
Brown: Quantum Field Theory
Any preferred reference that treats a given topic
Grading
The final grade will be based on the homework lists (10%) and the best 2 scores out of the 3 exams (45% each).
Exams 1 and 2 will each cover ~50% of the material, and the final exam will cover the entire semester. The lowest grade of the three exams will be thrown out and the remaining two exam scores will determine 90% of the final grade.
Program
Identical particles
Symmetries and conservation laws
Scattering Theory
Second quantization
Lecture notes