Bernd Thaller Visual Quantum Mechanics: Selected Topics (repost)

In the strange world of quantum mechanics the application of visualization techniques is particularly rewarding, for it allows us to depict phenomena that cannot be seen by any other means. Visual Quantum Mechanics relies heavily on visualization as a tool for mediating knowledge. The book comes TM with a CD-ROM containing about 320 digital movies in QuickTime f- mat, which can be watched on every multimedia-capable computer. These computer-generated animations are used to introduce, motivate, and ill- trate the concepts of quantum mechanics that are explained in the book. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then my hope is that each short animation (consisting of about a hundred frames) will be worth a hundred thousand words. The collection of ?lms on the CD-ROM is presented in an interactive en- TM vironmentthathasbeendevelopedwiththehelpofMacromediaDirector . This multimedia presentation can be used like an adventure game without special computer skills. I hope that this presentation format will attract the interest of a wider audience to the beautiful theory of quantum mechanics.

Advanced Visual Quantum Mechanics is a systematic effort to investigate and to teach quantum mechanics with the aid of computer-generated animations. Although it is self-contained, this book is part of a two-volume set on Visual Quantum Mechanics. The first book appeared in 2000, and earned the European Academic Software Award in 2001 for oustanding innovation in its field. While topics in book one mainly concerned quantum mechanics in one- and two-dimensions, book two sets out to present three-dimensional systems, the hydrogen atom, particles with spin, and relativistic particles. It also contains a basic course on quantum information theory, introducing topics like quantum teleportation, the EPR paradox, and quantum computers. Together the two volumes constitute a complete course in quantum mechanics that places an emphasis on ideas and concepts, with a fair to moderate amount of mathematical rigor. The reader is expected to be familiar with calculus and elementary linear algebra. Any further mathematical concepts will be illustrated in the text.

This represents the introductory course which would precede and so complements the author's book on Advanced Quantum Mechanics. The new edition has been up-dated and thoroughly revised throughout and now includes many new or newly drawn figures which will facilitate an easier understanding of subtle topics. The book meets students' needs in providing detailed mathematical steps along the way, with worked examples and applications throughout the text, and many problems for the reader at the end of each chapter.

The book gives a streamlined introduction to quantum mechanics while describing the basic mathematical structures underpinning this discipline.

Quantum Mechanics – Special Chapters is an important additional course for third-year students. Starting with the quantization of a free electromagnetic field and its interaction with matter, it discusses second quantization and interacting quantum fields. After re-normalization problems and a general treatment of nonrelativistic quantum field theory, these methods are applied to problems from solid-state physics and plasma physics: quantum gas, superfluidity, plasmons, and photons. The book concludes with an introduction to quantum statistics, the structure of atoms and molecules, and the Schrödinger wave equation formulated by Feynman path integrals. 72 fully and carefully worked examples and problems consolidate the material.

The book highlights the personal and scientific struggles of Arthur Erich Haas (1884-1941), an Austrian Physicist from a wealthy Jewish middle-class family, whose remarkable accomplishments in a politically hostile but scientifically rewarding environment deserve greater recognition.

The treatment of time in quantum mechanics continues to be a key challenge in the foundation of quantum theory. This book follows Time in Quantum Mechanics—Volume 1 and is the second volume to detail the problems, attempts and achievements in defining, formalizing and measuring different time quantities in quantum theory. It touches upon numerous related issues as well.

This book tells the fascinating story of the people and events behind the turbulent changes in attitudes to quantum theory in the second half of the 20th century. The huge success of quantum mechanics as a predictive theory has been accompanied, from the very beginning, by doubts and controversy about its foundations and interpretation.