Customer Reviews

Quantum Mechanics

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Merzbacher is one of the `classic' learning books on quantum mechanics. It is commonly grouped together with Messiah, Schiff and Davydov. Unlike most of the other classics however, Merzbacher has moved with the times and managed to keep up with current trends in quantum mechanics.

When I originally flipped through this book I was impressed by the wealth of the content and the large number of interesting exercises that applied the fundamentals to the basic principles of various fields of research (quantum optics and quantum information for example). I then resolved to work through all of the problems and exercises. After having completed this book I am less impressed than I hoped I would be.

The problems in this book are divided into two classes, the first being exercises interspersed throughout the text, the second being problems at the end of each chapter. None of the exercises in the text are difficult but they tend to disrupt the flow of the book as they (especially towards the end of the book) are of the form: `now you have seen the most trivial case, verify this formula for the cases n=5,6,7 which will involve you inverting 27 4x4 matrices' (I exaggerate slightly). I am a little irritated by this as it requires the reader to switch into autopilot and wade through pages of algebra to get a result you knew you would get anyway. The problems at the end of each chapter range from the ultimately trivial to applications to some research topics (but still fairly straightforward).

The style of the presentation of the subject matter is a little quirky and idiosyncratic in places. This book is in its 3rd edition and it is easy to pick additions in this edition. The typo density increases in these chapters/sections and the text just skims the derivations. Merzbacher seems to occasionally choose a deliberately more complicated explanation for some topics.

I would not recommend this book for a reference as Merzbacher does leave some useful formulas to the problems/exercises. I have trouble recommending this book as a learning book as well. Shankar is certainly the best (modern) learning book in my opinion. You could simulate the content of Merzbacher by using Shankar and then referring to the literature/references for the advanced topics that Merzbacher treats.

I cannot let the posted reviews go unanswered. I have taught from the various editions of Merzbacher for many years (since I was a graduate TA for a QM course) and have always had good results with it. It is not, however, an undergraduate text at most institutions. And any student advanced enough to be in a course where Merzbacher is appropriately used knows that graduate physics textbooks are not intended to be problem solving manuals. At this stage of one's development, one knows how to convert the principles learned from lecture and study into appropriate problem solving strategies. My principal complaint is the price; I cannot ask my students to pay $100 for a textbook, even in 1999. More's the pity.

Having had this text recommended for my graduate quantum class, but not taught from (instead taught out of the execrable book by J.J. Sakurai), I think that Merzbacher has written a very readable and very thorough book. Clearly, it is not a book aimed at undergraduates, but it is very elegantly written and uses the approach mirrored in Gasiorowicz and others, building the subject up with ordinary calculus and slowly bringing in matrix algebra. For a more modern treatment, and one very well written for the motivated self-studier, try Shankar's "Principles of Quantum Mechanics".

I would give it 2.5 stars if I could - I don't think it quite deserves 3.
A wealth of information. If you're looking for it, it's probably at least mentioned in here if it's mentioned in any QM textbook anywhere. Might make a good reference, then.
However, as a book to learn from it seems generally obtuse difficult to read (though some sections are better or worse than others). It isn't just that it's abstract or mathematical - I don't mind that at all; in fact that's one of the strengths of this book in my opinion - but that the necessary explanation just isn't there, or is ineffective.

I agree with Mr. Jacob; this is a classic for good reasons. A student with an introductory QM course under his/her belt will enjoy the more advanced subjects (2nd quantisation, dirac equation,...). I also agree with Mr. Jacob about the price: this is much too high for the average student, presumably the targeted audience; something like 40 dollars would be more reasonable. Moreover, a book should be judged on its own merits; it is not Merzbacher's fault that some students want a easier book. Giving a 1 star comment because a book is too difficult is inappropriate.

In my opinion the critical problem with this book is that it fails to put quantum mechanics in the context of physical science. The entire book reads like a mathematical exercise contrived by a person to test/entertain other people, rather than the documentation of refined mathematical statements of empirical observations. Others have said it is hard to read, this is true. They have said the organisation is not great, this is also true, but the larger issue, once again in my oppinion, is that the book does not relate the mathematical act of DOING quantum mechanics calculations to the the physical world. Although this is a common malady amongts physics textbooks, texts on Quantum Mechanics by J.J. Sakurai and D.J. Griffiths, the former an advanced text, the latter introductory, manage to better put the mathematical theory in proper physical context. Buy it because its required for most graduate level Quantum Mechanics courses, but be prepared to consult other texts in order to develop an understanding of quantum mechanics.

I was lucky to have other books and a great instructor in Quantum Mechanics, otherwise I wouldn't have learned the subject at all. The language of this book is very dry and abstract at the same time, leaving the reader without an idea of what it all has to do with the real life. The approach to teaching is by no means classical and lacks examples. Another thing that I didn't like (and that unfortunately occurs so often in scientific literature) is the way references were handled: the author would send you 10 chapters back to substitute formulas 178 and 186 into another one 5 chapters back to get a result on the current page, whereas in good books relevant formulas would just be re-typed once again for reader's convenience.
Having said all that, I also need to say that the author did a good job picking the problems for this text. They are of moderate difficulty and well related to the discussion in a preceding chapter.

This book was originally written to make Schiffs book on quantum mechanics available to a wider audience. It was supposed to be simpler and more readable. Never happened. It is too wordy by far and many topics are actually covered very superficially with the student then being expected to solve difficult problems as though the treatment had been complete. Unfortunately, this is a common malady of physics texts. If you want a wordy, good, reasonably complete, text then Messiah's book is excellent.

Merzbacher's text is fairly opaque as an undergrad resource. The problems mirror Griffiths in that some key points are developed in exercises with no explinations, making it a poor choice for independent study. However, after covering a section in class and then returning to the book and working each problem, about 4 times average, you then begin to gain a fuller understanding of the material. I have two professors that used the book for the first two semesters in grad school. summary: good reference, bad self-study or undergrad text

My friends who attended physics grad school at Cornell in the mid 1970's told me that Hans Bethe's lectures for the standard grad level quantum mechanics course consisted of him placing Merzbacher on the lectern and literally reading straight out of it! Some students found this approach helpful--as they then did not have to take copious notes. Others considered Bethe's old-fashioned approach (evoking the position of "Reader" in British universities) to be lazy and uninspired. In any event, Bethe's choice of Merzbacher for this purpose might seem to suggest that this book has certain merits.

I have found that Merzbacher's book does indeed provide a particularly good discussion of a number of topics. The role of operator commutation in the formulation of the Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle is developed in detail (pp.158-161). The book also does a good job of tracing the relationship between 2D unitary transformations and 3D rotations (pp.266-7, Eqs.12.35-12.41) as part of Chapter 12's treatment of Spin (pp.249-273). Chapter 7 (pp.116-138) provides a good discussion of the WKB approximation, especially as applied to quantum tunneling. As a grad student I used chapter 7 as the basis of a term paper on field emission for the graduate level surface science course.