Foundations of Quantum Physics (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jacob J. Leventhal (Author)
Key Phrases: stationary states, angular momentum ladder operators, multistate systems, Quantum Mechanics, One Dimension, Nobel Prize (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"This book is meant to be used for a first course in quantum mechanics and assumes that the student has taken a modern physics course and has had mathematics through differential equations. … The book reviews how to sketch wave functions for a variety of 1-D potentials and addresses the standard calculations for special cases. … Overall, this is an excellent book … . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates." (E. Kincanon, Choice, Vol. 46 (8), April, 2009)

"This textbook provides an introduction to quantum mechanics at an elementary level. … The presentation of the topics is very good and pedagogical. … Finally, many exercises and their solutions … are given. All in all, this book provides an excellent introduction to the field of quantum physics. It will be very useful to beginning students in quantum mechanics, and also to lecturers on this topic. It is highly recommended as a basis for a course, or even for self-study." (Axel Maas, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2009 m)

Product Description

Our book is meant to be a text for a first undergraduate course in quantum physics. Both of us have taught this course numerous times and have used several different texts, some of them excellent. Obviously, though, there are changes we would make and that is the reason we are writing this book.

Two of the most widely used books for this course are the excellent texts by Griffiths (Prentice-Hall) and Gasiorowicz (Wiley), both of which we have used. Another, which neither of us has used but both of us are familiar with, is by Liboff (Addison-Wesley). While we find much to like about these books, there are matters of style, order of presentation and included subject matter that we obviously prefer. We do not wish our comments to be taken as criticism of other books but merely as a statement of our own preferences and the reasons that we believe our style and method can be helpful to students and instructors.

We wish to avoid a modern trend in textbooks that is to condense and compress these texts into ever smaller and smaller size. We are not sure whether this trend is to lower the cost of the book or to make the book seem less formidable to the student, but we believe that a textbook should be more than a one or two semester acquaintance. This is especially true for a course such as quantum mechanics which is likely taken by physics majors who will use the subject for the rest of their careers. We therefore believe that a textbook can (and should) contain material that an instructor will choose to omit. In keeping with this theme, there are topics included that are not normally covered in introductory textbooks, not necessarily too advanced, but not usually covered. Perhaps in years to come this student, now working as a physicist, is interested in the subject that was skipped during the course. He/she knows where to find the material in a book that is quite familiar to him/her. Both of us have many such books in our personal libraries. It seems as if modern physics texts are not built to be long term reference books. This is just our observation and we would like our book to have “staying power” and be long term companions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 530 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (September 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387776516
• ISBN-13: 978-0387776514
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #672,052 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book for introductory level., October 11, 2009

By	Pamsath "pamsath" (Atlanta,GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Its a good book, but may be as it is the first edition there were many printing errors. Hope those will be correcter in future editions.