The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Extensively uses computer graphics and pictures to visualize the subject of quantum mechanics Contains more than a hundred problems designed to help students extract the physics from the figures Complements any standard textbook on quantum mechanics, providing insights into the dynamical structure of quantum theory Presents all computer graphics in full color, and contains additional physics topics such as hybridization, bound states and scattering The aim of this book is to explain the basic concepts and phenomena of quantum mechanics by means of visualization. Computer-generated illustrations in color are used extensively throughout the text, helping to establish the relation between quantum mechanics—wave functions, interference, atomic structure, and so forth—and classical physics—point mechanics, statistical mechanics, and wave optics. Even more important, by studying the pictures in parallel with the text, readers develop an intuition for such notoriously abstract phenomena as • the tunnel effect • excitation and decay of metastable states • wave-packet motion within a well • systems of distinguishable and indistinguishable particles • free wave packets and scattering in 3 dimensions • angular-momentum decomposition • stationary bound states in various 3-dimensional potentials • hybrid states • Kepler motion of wave packets in the Coulomb field • spin and magnetic resonance Illustrations from experiments in a variety of fields, including chemistry, and molecular, atomic, nuclear, and particle physics, underline the basic as well as the practical importance of quantum mechanics. In the present, fourth edition all computer graphics are presented in full color. It also contains additional physics topics such as hybridization.