By Kurt Gottfried, Tung-Mow Yan
The book under review offers the reader in-depth physical and mathematical understanding of quantum mechanics. The book is the second edition of Gottfried’s Quantum mechanics. … Readers’ anticipations have finally been rewarded by the second edition of the earlier book, which is a complete revision covering most of the topics and much more … . The appendix contains the values of important physical constants, some useful operator identities … . The end notes at the conclusion of each chapter contain many useful references.
Quantum Mechanics : Fundamentals by Kurt Gottfried, Tung-Mow Yan Overview
This classic text provides a comprehensive exposition of the concepts and techniques of quantum mechanics. The phenomena treated are sufficiently simple to allow the student to readily assess the validity of the models so that attention is not deflected from the heart of the subject. To that end, the book concentrates on systems that can either be solved exactly or be handled by well-controlled, plausible approximations. With few exceptions, this means systems with a small number of degrees of freedom. The exceptions are many – electron atoms, the electromagnetic field and the Dirac equation. The inclusion of the last two topics reflects the belief that every physicist should now have some knowledge of these cornerstones of modern physics.
This new edition has been completely revised and rewritten throughout, but retains the clarity and readability of the first edition.
Born in Vienna, Kurt Gottfried emigrated to Canada in 1939 and received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955. He is a professor emeritus of physics at Cornell University, and had previously been at Harvard University and at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the coauthor of Concepts of Particle Physics (with V.F. Weisskopf) and of Crisis Stability and Nuclear War. Gottfried has done research in both nuclear and particle physics; he has an active interest in arms control and human rights and is a founder and currently the Chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Tung-Mow Yan, originally from Taiwan, received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Harvard University in 1968. He has been a member of the Cornell University faculty since 1970 after spending two years as a research associate at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He has conducted research in many areas of elementary particle physics.
Need an unforgettable discount price?
You can get Discount Price on Quantum Mechanics : Fundamentals by Kurt Gottfried, Tung-Mow Yan today
This new edition has been completely revised and rewritten throughout, but retains the clarity and readability of the first edition.
Born in Vienna, Kurt Gottfried emigrated to Canada in 1939 and received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955. He is a professor emeritus of physics at Cornell University, and had previously been at Harvard University and at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the coauthor of Concepts of Particle Physics (with V.F. Weisskopf) and of Crisis Stability and Nuclear War. Gottfried has done research in both nuclear and particle physics; he has an active interest in arms control and human rights and is a founder and currently the Chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Tung-Mow Yan, originally from Taiwan, received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Harvard University in 1968. He has been a member of the Cornell University faculty since 1970 after spending two years as a research associate at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He has conducted research in many areas of elementary particle physics.
Quantum Mechanics : Fundamentals by Kurt Gottfried, Tung-Mow Yan Review
Given the plethora of books on Quantum Mechanics, it is hard to pick a favourite. Gottfried and Yan's book is by no means the best though it is my personal favourite. There are other excellent books as well right from Dirac's classic text to more modern works such as Sakurai.
One of the things that is most impressive about this book is the way it starts. Most books go into a discussion of the mathematics of quantum mechanics such as linear algebra, etc. (notably in Shankar) But this book actually focuses on pure physics and demonstrates the wave-particle duality by means of the double-slit experiment.
The second chapter called "Formal Framework" is quite dense and contains almost all the mathematics necessary followed by an equally dense discussion of angular momenta, etc. The section on low-dimensional systems contains a wide range of topics, thrown together in a somewhat idiosyncratic manner. This is followed by a nice discussion of hydrogenic and two-electron atoms. Then there is a powerful chapter on the discussion of symmetries and a discussion of the consequences. This is followed by two compact yet exhaustive chapters on scattering theory. And then the application of quantum mechanics to electrodynamics and statistics is presented. And one of the gems of the book, a chapter on Interpretation is present which very few books present in such a clear and concise manner. This is followed by a brief introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics.
The book is very economical in its choice of words and is very dense as a whole. People looking for a lot of detailed derivations and explanations will be better off looking elsewhere. What Gottfried and Yan do is to present the framework of quantum mechanics and its application to a wide range of topics in a self-contained and beautiful book.
One of the things that is most impressive about this book is the way it starts. Most books go into a discussion of the mathematics of quantum mechanics such as linear algebra, etc. (notably in Shankar) But this book actually focuses on pure physics and demonstrates the wave-particle duality by means of the double-slit experiment.
The second chapter called "Formal Framework" is quite dense and contains almost all the mathematics necessary followed by an equally dense discussion of angular momenta, etc. The section on low-dimensional systems contains a wide range of topics, thrown together in a somewhat idiosyncratic manner. This is followed by a nice discussion of hydrogenic and two-electron atoms. Then there is a powerful chapter on the discussion of symmetries and a discussion of the consequences. This is followed by two compact yet exhaustive chapters on scattering theory. And then the application of quantum mechanics to electrodynamics and statistics is presented. And one of the gems of the book, a chapter on Interpretation is present which very few books present in such a clear and concise manner. This is followed by a brief introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics.
The book is very economical in its choice of words and is very dense as a whole. People looking for a lot of detailed derivations and explanations will be better off looking elsewhere. What Gottfried and Yan do is to present the framework of quantum mechanics and its application to a wide range of topics in a self-contained and beautiful book.
Need an unforgettable discount price?
You can get Discount Price on Quantum Mechanics : Fundamentals by Kurt Gottfried, Tung-Mow Yan today