Understanding quantum mechanics : an introduction to the abstract formalism and the basic ideas of quantum mechanics

Claude N. Cohen-Tannoudji, Bernard Diu, Franck Laloë

Tilak Sinha

CERN

This is an introduction to the basic ideas.It is designed ISR Auditorium r T A C .-T ,, .° for people not familiar with quantum mechanics, but expert in classical mechanics and electromagnetic theory, including the fundamental notions of special relativity.It is expected that the course will start with an outline of the phenomenology of polarization of spin -L /2 particles, and then introduce the ideas of quantum mechanics and in particular the quantum theoretic interpretation of the phenomenological polarization equations, touching finally on particles of higher spin. ENSEIGNEMENT GENERAL "Understanding CERN"

L.D. LANDAU, Efrat Lifshitz

Michel Talagrand

This chapter provides a self-contained introduction to the basic aspects of Quantum Mechanics, focusing on what is must for Quantum Field Theory. The notions of state space, unitary operators, self-adjoint operators, and projective representation are covered as well as Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. A complete proof of Stone’s theorem is given, but the spectral theory is covered only at the heuristic level. We provide an introduction to Dirac’s formalism, which is almost universally used in physics literature. The time-evolution is described in both the Schrödinger and the Heisenberg picture. A complete treatment of the harmonic oscillator, providing an introduction to the fundamental idea of creation and annihilation operators concludes the chapter.

L.D. LANDAU, E.M. LIFSHITZ