This quantum world

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IT HAS BEEN REQUESTED THAT A PDF VERSION OF THIS BOOK BE MADE Peteturtle 21:27, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contents

1. What does an atom look like?
   1. Like this?
   2. Or like this?
   3. Quantum states
   4. Fuzzy observables
2. Serious illnesses require drastic remedies
   1. Planck
   2. Rutherford
   3. Bohr
   4. de Broglie
   5. Schrödinger
   6. Born
   7. Heisenberg
3. The Feynman route to Schrödinger
   1. Two rules
   2. An experiment with two slits
      1. Why product?
      2. Why is the absolute value inverse proportional to the distance?
      3. Why is the phase proportional to the distance?
      4. Calculating the interference pattern
   3. Bohm's story
   4. Propagator for a free and stable particle
      1. The propagator as a path integral
      2. A free particle
      3. A free and stable particle
      4. Meaning of mass
   5. From quantum to classical
      1. Action
      2. Geodesic equations
      3. Principle of least action
      4. Energy and momentum
      5. Lorentz force law
      6. Whence the classical story?
   6. Schrödinger at last
4. The Schrödinger equation: implications and applications
   1. How fuzzy positions get fuzzier
   2. Time independent Schrödinger equation
   3. Why energy is quantized
   4. A quantum bouncing ball
   5. Atomic hydrogen
   6. Observables and operators
   7. Beyond hydrogen: the Periodic Table
   8. Probability flux
5. Entanglement: a preview
   1. Bell's theorem: the simplest version
   2. A quantum game
   3. The experiment of Greenberger, Horne, and Zeilinger
6. ...

Appendix

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1. Probability
   1. Basic concepts
   2. Some problems
2. Mathematical tools
   1. Elements of calculus
      1. A definite integral
      2. Differential calculus: a very brief introduction
      3. Taylor series
      4. The exponential function
      5. The definite integral
      6. Sine and cosine
   2. Complex numbers
   3. Vectors
   4. Fields
      1. Gradient
      2. Curl
      3. Divergence
3. The ABCs of relativity
   1. The principle of relativity
   2. Lorentz transformations (general form)
   3. Composition of velocities
   4. Proper time
   5. An invariant velocity
   6. The case against K>0
   7. The case against K=0
   8. The actual Lorentz transformations
   9. Lorentz contraction and time dilation
   10. 4-Vectors

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