PHYSICS 6315 – QUANTUM MECHANICS I – Fall 2019

General Information:

Instructor: Dr. Carlos R. Ordonez

Office: Room 627B SR1
Telephone: 713-743-3586
E-mail: ordonez@uh.edu
Office Hours: 8:45 AM – 9:45 AM Tu/Th.
Grader: TBD
Lectures: Tu/Th, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, 606 SR1.
Recitation section: Friday, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM, 606 SR1.

Course Grading:

• Homework: Homework is assigned on a weekly basis, usually for submission on Thursday. It will
be due the following Thursday. Groups will be formed to work together on the homework (I’ll form
the groups the first week of classes). The homework will be graded and returned by the following
Tuesday. I will assign some of the problems to be presented by students during the recitation on Friday
(more instructions on this the first week of classes). Solutions will also be posted on the Blackboard
account for the class. Most of the HW problems will be aimed at getting you to fill up gaps in the
explanations in the lectures, and gain the skills for problem-solving needed for the partial exams and
especially the final exam. But I also want to introduce topics that are more related to current topics of
research (cold atoms in particular) and/or serve as introduction to more advanced courses (quantum
field theory, condensed matter physics, quantum information, etc.). Some of that will be done in the
HW assignments. One topic I definitely would like to introduce is renormalization (infinities and what
to do with them!) and the idea of low-energy effective lagrangians, which is a basic concept in most
of modern physics.

• Final Grade: As stipulated on the physics department website, the PhD candidates must get a B or
better in the core courses to pass them. The final grade will be determined based on the following
distribution: 10% from homework, 50% from two partial exams (equal weight each), and 40% the
final exam. The final examination is scheduled from 11:00 AM 2:00 PM on Thursday, Dec. 5,
2019, same room as lectures (SR1 606).

Course content:

The main book for this class is Modern Quantum Mechanics, by J.J. Sakurai and J.J. Napoli-
tano, second edition. Pearson used to publish this book but now you can find it online in a variety of
ways to purchase it. Do it in the way that’s most convenient for you. I will follow it closely most of the
time, but over the two semesters I will often use my own approach to some topics. In particular, I hope
to include during the two semesters several topics that are related to current research in my own field and
others of interest in other areas (mainly high-energy, condensed matter, cold atoms and quantum aspects of
gravitational physics). Other good references are: S. Weinberg’s “Lectures on Quantum Mechanics” second
edition; R. Shankar’s “Principles of Quantum Mechanics”, second edition; C. Cohen-Tannoudji’s “Modern
Quantum Mechanics”, two volumes; and G. Baym’s “Lectures on Quantum Mechanics”.

I plan to cover more or less half the book during the fall semester, and the rest during the spring semester.

The University has asked us to add the following statement to our syllabus:
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) can help students who are having difficulties managing
stress, adjusting to college, or feeling sad and hopeless. You can reach CAPS (www.uh.edu/caps) by calling
713-743-5454 during and after business hours for routine appointments or if you or someone you know is in
crisis. Also, there is no appointment necessary for the Let’s Talk program, which is a drop-in consultation
service at convenient locations and hours around campus.
http://www.uh.edu/caps/outreach/lets talk.html.
Standard Disclaimer: This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor.