Physics 139B UCSC
Welcome to Phys 139B, 2013!
I guess I will see many of you tomorrow during my office hours (noon-2PM). In addition, please feel free to ask your questions on the forum or by email. Good (= sincere) discussions will really protect you in my course, since (1) you are a learner—I/you/anybody should never expect you be a knower already (although you could be close or already there)—and (2) your willingness to learn will make people (esp., me) respect you very much.—8:10PM, Oct 20, 2013
Office hours: Monday 12-2 PM, Thursday, Friday, 1-2 PM, or OBA. (Syllabus updated.)—7:34PM, Oct 13, 2013
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.