Intermediate Quantum Mechanics (Advanced Book Classics)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • very good
  • A good overview
  • Learn to apply your quantum mechanics
Intermediate Quantum Mechanics (Advanced Book Classics)
Hans A. Bethe , and Roman Jackiw
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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  1. Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory, Volume 3, Third Edition (Quantum Mechanics) Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory, Volume 3, Third Edition (Quantum Mechanics)
  2. Principles of Quantum Mechanics Principles of Quantum Mechanics
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ASIN: 0201328313

Book Description

Graduate students in both theoretical and experimental physics will find this third edition of Intermediate Quantum Mechanics, refined and updated in 1986, indispensable. The first part of the book deals with the theory of atomic structure, while the second and third parts deal with the relativistic wave equations and introduction to field theory. Throughout its nearly thirty-five years in print, Intermediate Quantum Mechanics has consistently offered more complete coverage of applications of quantum mechanics than any other single-volume work on the subject.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars very good.......2004-03-03

This is a very useful book, but only for someone with a solid grasp of QM at the undergrad level. The only problem is the terrible type in which the equations are set. Why Addison-Wesley released a new edition without fixing this is beyond me.
(profit, perhaps? No, never on a scholarly textbook.)

4 out of 5 stars A good overview.......2003-01-31

That quantum mechanics must be understood by anyone working in any area of technology is now well accepted. Indeed, semiconductor device physics, proteomics, and computational chemistry are just three of the more modern areas where a through knowledge of quantum mechanics is needed in order to make any kind of significant progress. This book, written by two of the major players in the development of quantum mechanics in the 20th century, is an excellent overview of how to do practical computations in quantum mechanics. The book is addressed primarily to the aspiring atomic physicist and spectroscopist, but it could serve well anyone interested in the applications of quantum mechanics, such as those in the aforementioned fields. Due to space limitations, I will only review the first 8 chapters of the book.

Chapter 1 is a brief overview of elementary quantum mechanics, and the authors set down the notation and units to be followed in the book. They state the main goal of the book, which is to solve the Schrodinger equation for an atom with nuclear charge Ze. This problem for one-electron is straightforwardly solved, but for more than one electron approximation techniques must be used, a few of which they mention. Since spin will have to be dealt with throughout the book, the authors include a description of spin 1/2 particles.

In chapter 2 the authors discuss the use of symmetry principles in quantum many-particle systems, pointing out the origin of exchange degeneracy and the Pauli exclusion principle. The authors also give an interesting discussion of the experimental determination of symmetry, particularly their argument for the absence of hidden variables.

In chapter 3 the authors give an overview of the quantum mechanics of two-electron atoms, pointing out that the calculations give six-figure agreement between theory and experiment. Perturbation and variational methods are used to solve the Schrodinger equation for this system, and show the origin of the triplet and singlet levels for the helium atom.

In chapter 4, the authors introduce another approximation technique, the self-consistent field or "Hartree-Fock" method, in order to calculate the excited states for the two-electron atom more efficiently. This approach involves using a variational trial function, called the determinantal wave function, as an ansatz, which because of orthogonality and parity considerations, results in a set of equations, called the Hartree-Fock equations, for the single electron orbitals. The "exchange term" in these equations is discussed in detail, involving a notion of a "nonlocal" potential. The physical significance of the eigenvalue in these equations is also discussed, and related to the famous Koopman theorem. It is proven also that atoms with closed shells leads to a spherically symmetric theory. The periodic table is shown to be a consequence of the Pauli principle and the Hartree-Fock calculation.

An improvement to Hartree-Fock, the Thomas-Fermi method, which does not include exchange, is discussed in chapter 5. Classified as a "statistical method", this method finds the effective potential energy experienced by a small test charge, along with the electron density around the nucleus. The authors show how exchange effects can be included using a procedure due to P.A.M. Dirac, which uses a concept of effective exchange potential, and one due to W. Lenz, which is a constrained optimization procedure, requiring that the total energy be stationary.

In order to remove the degeneracy in the atomic shells due to the Hartree-Fock approximation, the authors view it as a perturbation expansion in chapter 6, with the unperturbed Hamiltonian being the Hartree-Fock central field Hamiltonian, and the perturbation being the electrostatic interaction of the electrons minus a suitable average of it. The search for proper linear combinations of zero-order degenerate eigenfunctions to make the total Hamiltonian diagonal entails the use of the total orbital and spim angular momentum of all the electrons in the atom. Hence the authors outline in detail how to perform the addition of angular momenta in this chapter. The reader can see clearly the origin of the famous Clebsch-Gordon coefficients. This program is carried out in more detail in chapter 7, wherein the authors considers and atom which has an electron configuration distributed over several complete and one incomplete shell. The incomplete shell gives several different degenerate solutions, and this degeneracy can be removed by the assignment of angular momentum and spin quantum numbers to the orbitals in the shell. This chapter is characterized by a considerable amount of arithmetic in computing matrix elements, which can readily be handled by modern symbolic computation packages.

The contribution of the spin-orbit interaction to the level structure of atoms, ignored in the previous two chapters, is studied in chapter 8. The authors also consider the interaction of the electron configuration with an external field, such as a magnetic field. The spin-orbit interaction is not considered in a relativistic framework, but instead is given a "pseudo-derivation", in the words of the authors. The (correct) Dirac theory for spin-orbit interaction is given later in chapter 22. And here again, the matrix elements, and reduced matrix elements, considered in this chapter can best be handled by symbolic computation packages. This is particularly true for matrix elements of vector operators between states of different angular momentum, which the authors shy away from. The reader though can see the origin of the famous Wigner-Eckart theorem in the context of these computations. The Zeeman effect, resulting from the interaction of an electron with a homogeneous magnetic field, is discussed, along with the Paschen-Back effect, which results from the external magnetic field being strong enough to allow the Zeeman term in the Hamiltonian to dominate the spin-orbit interaction. Also discussed is the Stark effect, which results when an atom is placed in an external electric field. The authors show how to compute the energy shifts in this case, using, but not proving, some formulas due to Condon and Shortly.

5 out of 5 stars Learn to apply your quantum mechanics.......1998-08-19

The "Intermediate" of the title means that you are supposed to have learned your basic QM in a book such as Griffiths' "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" . Bethe's text then leads you to those parts of QM most successful in applications, especially in atomic structure. The treatment of perturbation theory is very clean, simple and effective. The semi-classical theory of radiation is excellently described and then, in perhaps the best part of the book, is used to review Einstein's derivation of Planck's equilibrium distribution of radiation, explaining the need for spontaneous emmission and motivating the treatment of quantum electrodynamics, outlined at the end of the text. This is a great book. What else could one expect from Hans Bethe, the man who discovered how the Sun produces its energy?
Psychoanalytic Collisions
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Superb!
Psychoanalytic Collisions
Joyce Anne Slochower
Manufacturer: The Analytic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0881634255

Book Description

In this beautiful work of reflection and self-reflection, Joyce Slochower wrestles with a seldom acknowledged dimension of being a psychoanalyst - the dialectic between illusions and less ideal realities that complicate the analyst's sense of who she is and of how best to meet her clinical obligations. Psychoanalytic Collisions details the various ways in which the analyst's wishes (both professional and personal) collide with the less-than-perfect actualities of everyday clinical work. The collisions in question are often rooted in the analyst's own illusions: illusions of therapeutic possibility in the face of ordinary human existence or illusions of therapeutic selflessness in the face of one's own immutably self-centered humanity. Such collisions may complicate nonclinical professional activities such as writing, in which the analyst's desire to develop a personal idiom collides with self doubt and the imagined rebuff of teachers and colleagues. Other collisions coalesce dyadically in the consulting room. They may reflect sharp dissonance between what the patient needs the analyst to feel and what the latter actually feels, as in discrepant experiences of erotic desire. They may grow out of colliding idealizations of analyst and patient, each of the other. And they may arise in the wake of traumatizing life events that destroy the shared illusions on which treatment has rested.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Superb!.......2007-03-15

Dr. Slochower's ground-breaking study is as clearly written as it is insightful, and as such is suited to the professional psychoanalyst and layman alike. Thoroughly recommended.
Relativistic Quantum Theory of Atoms and Molecules (Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics)
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    Relativistic Quantum Theory of Atoms and Molecules (Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics)
    I.P. Grant
    Manufacturer: Springer
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    Relativistic quantum electrodynamics, which describes the electromagnetic interactions of electrons and atomic nuclei, provides the basis for modeling the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids and of their interactions with photons and other projectiles. The theory underlying the widely used GRASP relativistic atomic structure program, the DARC electron-atom scattering code and the new BERTHA relativistic molecular structure program is presented in depth, together with computational aspects relevant to practical calculations. Along with an understanding of the physics and mathematics, the reader will gain some idea of how to use these programs to predict energy levels, ionization energies, electron affinities, transition probabilities, hyperfine effects and other properties of atoms and molecules.

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    Quantum Theory: A Wide Spectrum
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      Quantum Theory: A Wide Spectrum
      E.B. Manoukian
      Manufacturer: Springer
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      ASIN: 1402041896

      Book Description

      The ultimate modern textbook on Quantum Theory, this graduate-level and self-contained s text is also a reference and research work which provides background for researchers in this discipline, covering important recent developments and most aspects of the theory with fairly detailed presentations.
      In addition to traditional topics, it includes: selective measurements, Wigner's Theorem of symmetry transformations, generators of quantum transformations, supersymmetry, details on the spectra of Hamiltonians and stability of quantum systems, Bose-Fermi oscillators, coherent states, hyperfine structure of the H-atom for any angular momentum, the non-relativistic Lamb shift, anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, Ramsey oscillatory fields methods, measurement, interference and the role of the environment, the AB effect, geometric phases (including the nonadiabatic and noncyclic), Schrödinger's cat and quantum decoherence, quantum teleportation and cryptography, quantum dynamics of the Stern-Gerlach effect, Green functions, path integrals, including constrained dynamics, quantum dynamical principle and variations, systematics of multi-electron atoms, stability of matter, collapse of "bosonic matter" and the role of spin, intricacies of scattering, quantum description of relativistic particles for any spin and mass, spinors, helicity, the Spin & Statistics Theorem.
      In addition it contains numerous problems, some of which are challenging enough for research.

      International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (AIP Conference Proceedings)
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        International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (AIP Conference Proceedings)

        Manufacturer: American Institute of Physics
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        All papers were peer reviewed. This conference focused on the broad field of nuclear data, their production, dissemination, and testing, with the goal of providing reliable data for applications such a nuclear fission and fusion energy, accelerators, spallation neutron sources, nuclear medicine, environment, space, non-proliferation, nuclear safety, astrophysics and cosmology, and basic research.
        Collision-Based Computing
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          Collision-Based Computing

          Manufacturer: Springer
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

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          ASIN: 1852335408

          Book Description

          Collision-Based Computing presents a unique overview of computation with mobile self-localized patterns in non-linear media, including computation in optical media, mathematical models of massively parallel computers, and molecular systems. It covers such diverse subjects as conservative computation in billiard ball models and its cellular-automaton analogues, implementation of computing devices in lattice gases, Conway's Game of Life and discrete excitable media, theory of particle machines, computation with solitons, logic of ballistic computing, phenomenology of computation, and self-replicating universal computers. Collision-Based Computing will be of interest to researchers working on relevant topics in Computing Science, Mathematical Physics and Engineering. It will also be useful background reading for postgraduate courses such as Optical Computing, Nature-Inspired Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Smart Engineering Systems, Complex and Adaptive Systems, Parallel Computation, Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics.
          Molecular Collision Theory
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            M. S. Child
            Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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            Collision Theory
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              Marvin L. Goldberger , and K.M. Watson
              Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
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              Ancient Astronauts, Cosmic Collisions and Other Popular Theories About Man's Past
              Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
              • A breath of fresh air
              • A much-needed dose of rationality.
              • This man needs to open up his mind
              Ancient Astronauts, Cosmic Collisions and Other Popular Theories About Man's Past
              William H. Stiebing Jr.
              Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Paperback

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              Customer Reviews:

              5 out of 5 stars A breath of fresh air.......1999-06-11

              In the face of so much nonsense out there about the ancient past and the public's seemingly limitless capacity to listen anyone but the experts (consult the depressingly ebullient reader reactions to Hancock's crashingly unoriginal and largely fictional "Fingerprints of the Gods" at this site), Stiebing's book comes as a breath of fresh air. He is lucid, concise, factual, and reasonable. In successive chapters, he tackles the flood myth, Atlantis, Velikovsky's colliding-planets theory, ancient astronauts, the pyramids, mythic (and factual, in the case of the Norse) pre-Colombian voyages to the Americas, and ends with an assessment of the main characteristics of "popular" theories. In each case, he clearly lays out the much-despised "conventional" position on these issues: how, for instance, geology completely fails to uphold the proposition of a universal flood or how the pyramids were almost certainly built by Egyptians as tombs for their god-kings some 4,500 years ago and not by Atlanteans, refugees from a Martian civil war, or mysterious bearded figures from Antartica. What was striking to this reader was how many of the supposed "discoveries" and "theories" of recent pseudoscientific works like Hancock's (published in 1995) have long been argued and disproven already (Stiebing's book came out in 1984). Yet the "popular theorists" just continue to rehash the old, long discredited "evidence," never address countervailing opinion in detail, and sell thousands upon thousands of books. There can be no better indication of their utter disregard for the truth -- or of their motives.

              Stiebing recognizes that part of the appeal of "popular theories" about the past stems not only from their sensational nature but also from a communication gap between mainstream scholars and the general public, few of whom have any idea what academics do or how they arrive at their dates, hypotheses, or conclusions. Stiebing ends with the hope that "Perhaps with concerted effort we can narrow the communication gap between scholars and the general public and make people less intellectually unwary than they have been heretofore. If so, popular theories may become less popular in the future." We must now admit, almost 15 years on, that his optimism has proven unwarranted. Despite excellent TV shows like "Archaeology" and "NOVA," the mass media continue to tout endlessly the "mysteries" of Atlantis, the Bible, ancient astronauts, the pyramids, etc. Charlatans like John A. West, Robert Schoch and Graham Hancock continue to get more airtime to view their nonsensical and untenable positions than any "mainstream" archaeologist. You can bet your bottom dollar that Hancock's crock has sold far more copies than M. Lehner's superb "The Complete Pyramids," a mainstream work that charts the rise and demise of the pyramid-building era of Egyptian history. The communication gap that Stiebing identified in 1984, it seems, is wider than ever.

              4 out of 5 stars A much-needed dose of rationality........1998-11-30

              If you feel even the slightest sense of dismay at the size of the "new age/occult" section in your local bookstore as compared to that of the "science/nature" section, you will probably enjoy this book. If you never noticed the discrepancy, well, you're probably not reading this review. An earlier review of this book criticizes Stiebing for focusing his critique of ancient astronauts on the mistakes made by a single proponent. A full description of the egregious errors made by _all_ proponents of notions of ancient astronauts, however, would fill thousands of pages. There will always be some new crackpot that Stiebing has missed. Stiebing's book examines a number of other pseudoscientific subjects, and is not limited to ancient astronauts, and whatever your personal feelings about the reality of such things may be, this book is an invaluable counterpoint to the flood of irrational "literature" that currently chokes bookstores everywhere--the flood that gives the lie to the persistent notion that such "alternative" viewpoints are somehow censored by an all-powerful scientific establishment. For a real idea of the nature of this mythical power, try to find this book in the store nearest you. Now try to find one by von Daniken. 'Nuff said.

              2 out of 5 stars This man needs to open up his mind.......1998-07-12

              Although I enjoyed reading most of Stiebling's work, his writing is somewhat hypocritical. He criticizes modern far-fetched theories too much while many of his own theories are far-fetched themselves. Also, he makes assumptions, such as giving credit to Khufu as the builder of the Great Pyramid. This was proven wrong by Zecharia Sitchin in The Wars of Gods and Men. He gives credible issues a bad name. For example, he throws out the theory of ancient astronauts by only looking at the mistakes made by one researcher. If he would just open his mind and examine works such as those of Zecharia Sitchin, he may think differently. If you're interested in the other side of such issues as Noah's Ark and Atlantis, check out this book, but if you want something that doesn't just touch on the subject, find something else.
              Global Encounters in the World of Art: Collisions of Tradition and Modernity
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                Global Encounters in the World of Art: Collisions of Tradition and Modernity

                Manufacturer: KIT Publishers
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

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                ASIN: 9068322818

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