Lecture Description
In this lecture, Prof. Adams introduces wavefunctions as the fundamental quantity in describing quantum systems. Basic properties of wavefunctions are covered. Uncertainty and superposition are reiterated in the language of wavefunctions.
Course Index
- Introduction to Superposition
- Experimental Facts of Life
- The Wave Function
- Expectations, Momentum, and Uncertainty
- Operators and the Schrӧdinger Equation
- Time Evolution and the Schrödinger Equation
- More on Energy Eigenstates
- Quantum Harmonic Oscillator
- Operator Methods for the Harmonic Oscillator
- Clicker Bonanza and Dirac Notation
- Dispersion of the Gaussian and the Finite Well
- The Dirac Well and Scattering off the Finite Step
- Scattering Take 2
- Resonance and the S-Matrix
- Eigenstates of the Angular Momentum
- Eigenstates of the Angular Momentum II
- Central Potentials Take 2
- "Hydrogen" and its Discontents
- Identical Particles
- Periodic Lattices - Part 1
- Periodic Lattices - Part 2
- Metals, Insulators, and Semiconductors
- More on Spin
- Entanglement — QComputing, EPR, and Bell
- Experiment 2: Effective Mass
Course Description
This course covers the experimental basis of quantum physics. Topics include: photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, photons, Franck-Hertz experiment, the Bohr atom, electron diffraction, de Broglie waves, and the wave-particle duality of matter and light. Introduction to wave mechanics: Schrödinger's equation, wave functions, wave packets, probability amplitudes, stationary states, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and zero-point energies. Solutions to Schrödinger's equation in one dimension: transmission and reflection at a barrier, barrier penetration, potential wells, the simple harmonic oscillator. Schrödinger's equation in three dimensions: central potentials and introduction to hydrogenic systems. The course is taught by three professors: Prof. Allan Adams, Prof. Matthew Evans, and Prof. Barton Zwiebach. It is the first course in the undergraduate Quantum Physics sequence, followed by 8.05 Quantum Physics II and 8.06 Quantum Physics III.