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Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: A Time-Dependent Perspective

David Tannor Weizmann Institute of Science
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This brilliant new text, a completely original manifesto, covers quantum mechanics from a time-dependent perspective in a unified way from beginning to end. Intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in quantum mechanics, this text will change the way people think about and teach about quantum mechanics in chemistry and physics departments.

Print Book, ISBN 978-1-891389-99-3, US $60
eBook, eISBN 978-1-938787-48-5, US $49
Copyright 2007
656 pages, Softcover

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Summary

This brilliant new text, a completely original manifesto, covers quantum mechanics from a time-dependent perspective in a unified way from beginning to end.  Intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in quantum mechanics, this text will change the way people think about and teach about quantum mechanics in chemistry and physics departments.

Translated into Japanese.

Resources

List of Adoptions
Foreword
Introduction
Author’s Website for this Book
Animations

Table of Contents

I Pictures and Concepts

  1. The Time Dependent Schrödinger Equation
  2. The Free Particle Wave Packet
  3. The Gaussian Wavepacket
  4. Classical-Quantum Correspondence
  5. The Wigner Representation
  6. Correlation Functions and Spectra
  7. One Dimensional Barrier Scattering

II Formal Theory and Methods of Approximation

  1. Linear Algebra and Quantum Mechanics
  2. Approximate Solutions
  3. Semiclassical Mechanics
  4. Numerical Methods

III Applications

12 Introduction to Molecular Dynamics

            13 Femtosecond Pulse Pair Excitation

            14 One- and Two-Photon Electronic Spectroscopy

            15 Strong Field Excitation

            16 Design of Femtosecond Pulse Sequences to Control Reactions

            17 Wavepacket Approach to Photodissociation

            18 Wavepacket Approach to Reactive Scattering

            19 Projects

            Index

Reviews

“Tannor provides a rigorous, self-contained development of modern time-dependent quantum mechanics and discusses numerous applications in molecular spectroscopy and reaction dynamics. With its fresh and conceptually appealing perspective, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics could change how quantum mechanics is perceived and taught.”
-Science, vol 319, p 161 (11 January 2008).

“This book is not only a new and much needed vehicle for training the current generation of students, but also the impulse required to change the momentum of textbook writers of the future, toward a balanced approach to quantum molecular dynamics.”
-Eric Heller, Harvard University

“The students in my class really appreciated the modern viewpoint with regard to both theory and experiment. The insightful treatments of many theoretical concepts, including semiclassical theory, wavepacket dynamics, and control theory are unique to this text. The Tannor book is a real winner and should be considered a standard text for graduate courses in physical chemistry.”
-Robert Wyatt, University of Texas

“David Tannor has organized the basic concepts of time-dependent quantum mechanics in a form that will be accessible to beginning and established researchers in the general area of modern molecular physics and chemistry. This book will be a valuable resource to those seeking to understand chemical dynamics from the perspective of what actually happens.”
-Jeffrey A. Cina, University of Oregon

“It contains a wealth of valuable material that is difficult to find elsewhere. It is also well written.”
-John C. Tully, Yale University

David Tannor

David Tannor Weizmann Institute of Science

David Tannor is a Professor of Chemical Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science . He received his BA from Columbia University in 1978, his PhD from UCLA in 1983, and worked as a Post-Doc with Professor Stuart Rice and David Oxtoby at the University of Chicago. His research interests currently include the design of specially tailored laser pulses to control breaking of chemical bonds and laser cooling of molecules; the calculation of chemical reaction probabilities and rate constants, using quantum mechanical and semiclassical methods; and the development of concepts and methods for simulating quantum mechanical motion of molecules in a solvent. In all three of these areas, Tannor uses time dependent quantum mechanics, where a moving wavepacket is the central dynamical object.

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