Instructor:  Hal Haggard

Office:  112 Rose

Office Hours: Tues. 5-6pm & Fri. 4:30-5:30pm

Email: haggard "usual at" bard.edu

Phone: +1-845-758-7302

Class Meeting:  106 Hegeman

Time:  MWF 3:10-4:30pm

Text:   D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics 2nd Ed., Addison-Wesley (2004)

Recommended Text:   J. Townsend, A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics Addison-Wesley (2000)

Organization and Logistics

A full syllabus can be downloaded here. This includes a tentative list of topics and schedule.

Exam Schedule:

• Take home 1, Due March 13th, 6pm.
• Take home 2, Due May 19th, 5pm.

Course Grade:

• Weekly Homework (due on Wednesdays) 50%
• Student lecture 10%
• Take home 1 20%
• Take home 2 20%

The course web site (this site) will be used to post homework assignments and any other useful materials.

Homework assignments

• Reading, Chap 1, sections 1.1-3 in Griffiths.
• Homework 1, due Wednesday, February 4th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 1, sections 1.4-6 in Griffiths.
• Homework 2, due Wednesday, February 11th in class: pdf (1.7MB).
  


• Reading, Chap 3, sections 3.1-3. Appendix A.1-A.2 in Griffiths.
• Homework 3, due Wednesday, February 18th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 2, sections 2.1-2.3.1 (skip 2.3.2 for now), and 2.4 in Griffiths.
• Homework 4, due Wednesday, February 25th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 3, sections 3.4-5 in Griffiths.
• Homework 5, due Wednesday, March 4th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 4, sections 4.3 and 4.4.1-2 in Griffiths.
• Homework 6, due Wednesday, April 1st in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 4, sections 4.3 and 4.4.1-2 in Griffiths.
• Homework 7, due Wednesday, April 8th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chap 4, sections 4.1 and 4.2 in Griffiths.
• Homework 8, due Wednesday, April 15th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chaps 4 & 5, sections 4.3 and 5.1 and 5.2 in Griffiths.
• Homework 9, due Wednesday, April 22nd in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Spin network dissertation chapter, sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.2, and 3.4.1.
• Homework 10, due Wednesday, April 29th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Spin network dissertation chapter, sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.2, and 3.4.1 and Griffiths pp187-188 and section 5.1.
• Homework 11, due Wednesday, May 6th in class: pdf.
  


• Reading, Chaps 5 & Afterword, section 5.1 and whole afterword in Griffiths.
• Homework 12, due Tuesday, May 12th at 6pm: pdf.
  

Lecture notes are my handwritten notes that I prepare for lecture.  I don't guarantee that they will be identical to what is presented in class, but they should be pretty close usually.  The notes also include things that I wasn't able to cover in the lecture. When I wasn't able to cover everything that I hoped to, the next day's lecture notes have significant overlap with the previous day's.

• Lecture of Monday, January 26th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, January 28th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, January 30th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, February 2nd, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, February 4th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, February 6th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, February 9th, 2015.
• Guest Lecture: Adrian Gillerman (HMH notes) Wednesday, February 11th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, February 13th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, February 16th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, February 18th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Loren Jackson HMH Notes.
• Lecture of Friday, February 20th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, February 23rd, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, February 25th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, February 27th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, March 2nd, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, March 4th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Max Meynig, HMH's notes included in lecture above.
• Lecture of Friday, March 6th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, March 9th, 2015.
• Lectures of Wednesday and Thursday, March 11th and 13th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Chen Zhang, HMH Notes.

• Lecture of Monday, March 23rd, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, March 25th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Liam Schramm, HMH Notes.
• Lecture of Friday, March 27th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, March 30th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, April 1st, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Michael di Rosa, HMH Notes.
• Lecture of Friday, April 3rd, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, April 6th, 2015, missing.
• Lecture of Wednesday, April 8th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, April 10th, 2015.

• Guest Lecture by Matthew Deady, Monday, April 13th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, April 15th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Maya Weingrod Sandor, HMH Notes.
• Lecture of Friday, April 17th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, April 20th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, April 24th, 2015, missing.

• Monday, April 27th, 2015, advising days, no lecture.
• Lecture of Wednesday, April 29th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, May 1st, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, May 4th, 2015.
• Lecture of Wednesday, May 6th, 2015.
• Lecture of Friday, May 8th, 2015.

• Lecture of Monday, May 11th, 2015.
  Guest Lecture: Zechen Zhang, HMH Notes.

Supplemental Notes

• Whence the Force of F=ma? by F. Wilczek, .pdf.
  
• The Fundamental Idea of Wave Mechanics by E. Schrödinger, Nobel Lecture.
  
• OSU Physic's SPINS simulation for the Stern-Gerlach experiment.
• Asymptotic Analysis of Spin Networks with Applications to Quantum Gravity, Hal's dissertation. The relevant parts for us are 3.1, 3.2, 3.3.2, and 3.4.1.
• YouTube video with Real-time imaging of quantum entanglment and a very nice set of lecture notes by my friend Dmitri Dounas-Frazer on Laguerre-Gaussian beams for some background.

On Giving Talks

• Geroch's wonderful Suggestions for Giving Talks.
  

• Amy Cuddy's TED talk on posture, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.
  

• Joshua Foer's TED talk on memory, Feats of memory anyone can do.
  

• Vanessa Van Edwards teaches several online courses on body language, here is the only free one I know of: 7 Scientifically Prove Steps to Increase Your Influence.
  

• An excellent presentation by Jean-luc Doumont: Creating Effective Slides: Design, Construction, and Use in Science.
  

• Doumont refers to the classic critique of the use of PowerPoint by Tufte: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, .pdf.
  

• For a comprehensive, and research-based, look at scientific presentations see The Craft of Scientific Presentations, by M. Alley, link.
  

• Alley has also built up a series of resource videos on the Assertion-Evidence approach; if you find this structure interesting check them out, link.