Welcome to Phys 139B, 2012!

Quiz this Thursday (Oct. 11): as a rule, quiz will follow in the next class after homework has been turned in. Please consult my homework solutions (available for download for homework #1 -- check the Homework+ page) to remind yourself of key concepts that are relevant to the homework that you just turned in. Quiz will be testing those key concepts. Quiz should not take more than 15 minutes or so.
One important correction for homework problem 2(a): plane wave → sine wave. Please consult the updated pdf file in the Homework+ page. – 4:00PM, Oct 08, 2012

Welcome to the second part of Quantum Mechanics!

In this course, you will learn how to use Quantum Mechanics, now that you have thoroughly learned, in 139A, what Quantum Mechanics is. (However, we will review the essentials of the formalism of Quantum Mechanics, as we begin 139B.) The topics to be covered include perturbation theories, the variational principle, scattering, the WKB approximation, the adiabatic principle and the Berry's phase. These contents that you will learn will make you feel good, I believe, not only because you will learn to calculate things and apply your results to physical situations, but also because this process of using Quantum Mechanics will enrich your notion of what Quantum Mechanics really is all about.