Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Image credit: quantum.bard.eduWe explore the basic formalism of quantum mechanics alongside several prominent interpretations of it.
Tutorial Sequence
Students work through the tutorials below in groups of 3-4, alongside interactive lectures and readings.
Polarizers
Students explain the polarization state of a photon as a superposition state using a hidden-variables model. They calculate the probability of transmission, and predict the polarization of a transmitted photon.
Splitters
Students explore how Copenhagen-type models describe a superposition of states with color/hardness splitters. They apply the idea that measurement reduces a superposition state to a definite state, and predict the possible outcomes and their associated probabilities.
States
Using the common ground of hidden-variables and Copenhagen-type models, students apply the mathematical formalism of two-state systems to polarizers, color/hardness splitters, and spin.
Operators
Students represent all spin bras and kets in matrix notation and derive the matrix representation of the projection operator and spin operators.
Dynamics
Students analyze the time evolution of the spin state of an electron in an external magnetic field.
Measurement
Students explore how environmental interaction (decoherence) can lead to a macroscopic object being in a definite state, with or without dynamical collapse of the wavefunction.
