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Modern Quantum Mechanics
"This best-selling classic provides a graduate-level, non-historical, modern introduction of quantum mechanical concepts. The author, J. J. Sakurai, was a renowned theorist in particle theory. This revision by Jim Napolitano retains the original material and adds topics that extend the book's usefulness into the 21st century. The introduction of new material, and modification of existing material, appears in a way that better prepares readers for the next course in quantum field theory. Readerse will still find such classic developments as neutron interferometer experiments, Feynman path integrals, correlation measurements, and Bell's inequality."--pub. desc.
550 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
September 5, 2016
A solid, well written and very rewarding post-graduate text on non-relativistic quantum mechanics. It assumes prior knowledge of the basics of quantum mechanics at undergraduate level. Familiarity with classical EM and with both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics is also required. A solid grounding in linear algebra, vector calculus and vector spaces is absolutely necessary as well.
The book is very dense and uncompromisingly technical and mathematical, however the explanations are always lucid and very interesting, and frequently supported by experimental results like neutron interferometer experiments, and elements of physical intuition are provided when applicable.
Gaps in derivations are suitably placed and they require just enough effort to achieve a more solid understanding of the subject being treated. The few exercises that I did have always been pedagogically very appropriate and generally at the right level of difficulty. However it must be said that this book requires focus, time and a very close read, where completing the missing derivation steps is an absolute must.
Some of the chapters (like the one on the underlying linear algebraic aspects and on the Dirac notation, the one on the theory of angular momentum, and the one of Feynman path integrals) are done brilliantly - one of the best treatment of such subjects I have ever come across, carried out by the author with remarkable depth and elegance. There is also a very nice treatment of the "Heisenberg picture", and a brilliant derivation of the Ehrenfest theorem; I also did enjoy the author's treatment of the spin precession phenomenon, and the chapter on symmetries.
The only issue I had with the book is in the fact that too much space (comparatively speaking) has been dedicated to perturbations theories, and I did not enjoy some atypical and ultimately unhelpful notational choices (not big issues at all, though).
I did not read the last chapter (about scattering) - I was put off by the feedback of several readers complaining about the quality of this last chapter (which, by the way, was posthumously completed by another author).
Overall, a demanding but also very rewarding and enjoyable book, a perfect buy as it is very useful as a reference text too.
The book is very dense and uncompromisingly technical and mathematical, however the explanations are always lucid and very interesting, and frequently supported by experimental results like neutron interferometer experiments, and elements of physical intuition are provided when applicable.
Gaps in derivations are suitably placed and they require just enough effort to achieve a more solid understanding of the subject being treated. The few exercises that I did have always been pedagogically very appropriate and generally at the right level of difficulty. However it must be said that this book requires focus, time and a very close read, where completing the missing derivation steps is an absolute must.
Some of the chapters (like the one on the underlying linear algebraic aspects and on the Dirac notation, the one on the theory of angular momentum, and the one of Feynman path integrals) are done brilliantly - one of the best treatment of such subjects I have ever come across, carried out by the author with remarkable depth and elegance. There is also a very nice treatment of the "Heisenberg picture", and a brilliant derivation of the Ehrenfest theorem; I also did enjoy the author's treatment of the spin precession phenomenon, and the chapter on symmetries.
The only issue I had with the book is in the fact that too much space (comparatively speaking) has been dedicated to perturbations theories, and I did not enjoy some atypical and ultimately unhelpful notational choices (not big issues at all, though).
I did not read the last chapter (about scattering) - I was put off by the feedback of several readers complaining about the quality of this last chapter (which, by the way, was posthumously completed by another author).
Overall, a demanding but also very rewarding and enjoyable book, a perfect buy as it is very useful as a reference text too.
Read
December 23, 2015Strictly for amateur masochists
August 11, 2011
I've rated this textbook just after I've read for my first course in Quantum Mechanics, so perhaps I've been too strict while rating it. However, I think my mark was justified in light of my situation.
I don't know about other people, but I had no introductory courses prior to listening Quantum mechanics 1. We already know how Quantum mechanics is a difficult and quite often baffling course for students, first and foremost because it's so different than the physics we are used to.
Since Sakurai was my professor's preferred book, I studied primarily from it during that semester. Of course, I consulted a myriad of other books, but Sakurai was my basis. And I have to say, it's not an easy book for a beginner, who has to quickly grasp bra-ket notation and remember lots of math just to be able to follow the text. The text itself is done well, and when I read it now, I enjoy the way the information is presented. But when I just started out, reading and learning from this textbook took quite a bit of my time. So it's not something I'd recommend to beginners. It would have been easier for me if I had read some sort of an introduction to QM (like the much touted Griffiths, for example), but since I haven't had enough foresight for that... I hope that some future physics students who happen to be reading this will know that :)
But, having a more difficult book like Sakurai as the first Quantum Mechanics textbook has it advantages. I got well acquainted with the mathematical side of quantum mechanics, and (I hope) became well versed in solving problems that require a more complex mathematical apparatus. Also, Sakurai can act as a standard when comparing other QM textbooks to it. Most of the latter, at least what I've encountered, is easier than Sakurai, and that's a comforting thought.
I don't know about other people, but I had no introductory courses prior to listening Quantum mechanics 1. We already know how Quantum mechanics is a difficult and quite often baffling course for students, first and foremost because it's so different than the physics we are used to.
Since Sakurai was my professor's preferred book, I studied primarily from it during that semester. Of course, I consulted a myriad of other books, but Sakurai was my basis. And I have to say, it's not an easy book for a beginner, who has to quickly grasp bra-ket notation and remember lots of math just to be able to follow the text. The text itself is done well, and when I read it now, I enjoy the way the information is presented. But when I just started out, reading and learning from this textbook took quite a bit of my time. So it's not something I'd recommend to beginners. It would have been easier for me if I had read some sort of an introduction to QM (like the much touted Griffiths, for example), but since I haven't had enough foresight for that... I hope that some future physics students who happen to be reading this will know that :)
But, having a more difficult book like Sakurai as the first Quantum Mechanics textbook has it advantages. I got well acquainted with the mathematical side of quantum mechanics, and (I hope) became well versed in solving problems that require a more complex mathematical apparatus. Also, Sakurai can act as a standard when comparing other QM textbooks to it. Most of the latter, at least what I've encountered, is easier than Sakurai, and that's a comforting thought.
April 22, 2017
The first few chapters are fantastic, as the non-historical approach to quantum mechanics and the ability (or merely choice) to drop Dirac notation on your ass straight away helps solidify all the things you thought you understood as an undergrad. And then you get to scattering. Ya see, our friend JJ Sakurai had the gall to die before finishing this book, and countless grad students are made to suffer for it. The bastard.
Chapters 6 and onwards are a mess, and while Napolitano has at least made an effort to update them and make them more understandable, he seems to have failed miserably. Then there is also the inexplicable decision to include problems based on material that is not at all covered in the text. I quite distinctly recall a problem concerning spontaneous emission and the lifetime of the 2p state, although Napolitano seems to think this is so trivial as to not include a section that so much as uses these words. For those inclined to actually study this problem, or for those who have the bad luck of having a professor assign this problem, I highly recommend Sakurai's other book, Advanced Quantum Mechanics, as here you will find the full treatment and will be able to work up to the solution. That a graduate level text in its third edition (there was a "revised" edition before this "second" edition) has problems that the authors don't even deign to acknowledge is astonishing, especially when they are complex enough to warrant an entire chapter in an "Advanced" textbook, and that about sums up how I feel about the last few chapters. I can't get enough of the first 4 chapters, but the ill-thought out bits about scattering, identical particles, and relativistic QM really mar Sakurai's legacy. Napolitano should be ashamed.
Chapters 6 and onwards are a mess, and while Napolitano has at least made an effort to update them and make them more understandable, he seems to have failed miserably. Then there is also the inexplicable decision to include problems based on material that is not at all covered in the text. I quite distinctly recall a problem concerning spontaneous emission and the lifetime of the 2p state, although Napolitano seems to think this is so trivial as to not include a section that so much as uses these words. For those inclined to actually study this problem, or for those who have the bad luck of having a professor assign this problem, I highly recommend Sakurai's other book, Advanced Quantum Mechanics, as here you will find the full treatment and will be able to work up to the solution. That a graduate level text in its third edition (there was a "revised" edition before this "second" edition) has problems that the authors don't even deign to acknowledge is astonishing, especially when they are complex enough to warrant an entire chapter in an "Advanced" textbook, and that about sums up how I feel about the last few chapters. I can't get enough of the first 4 chapters, but the ill-thought out bits about scattering, identical particles, and relativistic QM really mar Sakurai's legacy. Napolitano should be ashamed.
November 2, 2014
A pleasure. My favorite quantum textbook so far. Probably the clearest, most straightforward treatment of quantum via the Dirac formalism I've seen. Not good as a first text on quantum but it puts it all together beautifully.
May 28, 2007
Unfortunately, the author died before he could complete the book. As such, some chapters are marvels of clarity while others are impenetrable murks.
June 29, 2021
OK, let me start like this. There are many books on quantum mechanics. If I start to list some of the books that I know about then I might say Griffiths, Liboff, Bransden, Townsend, Mcintyre, Golwala, Gottfried, Zettilli, Feynman & Hibbs, Dirac, Greiner, Shanker, Bohm, Landau & Lifshitz, Tannoudji, and Schiff. So, is Sakurai just one of the many books on quantum mechanics? Well, yes, in my opinion, it is one of the many books but all of the books listed above have their positive and negative points and Sakurai is no exception.
First of all, let's look at the eight chapters of the book. In the first chapter, he talks about bra ket formalism (a.k.a the Dirac notation). The second chapter talks about dynamics (and gauge transformations) while the third chapter (one of the most important chapters of the book) is about angular momentum and related techniques. The fourth chapter is about symmetries (parity and time translations in particular) while the fifth chapter (again, a very important chapter) is about the approximation methods (perturbation theory, variational principle, and WKB approximation). The sixth chapter (super important chapter) is about non-relativistic scattering (and it talks about partial wave analysis with many other approximations -e.g. Born approximation- and applications -e.g. applications to nuclear form factor calculations-). The seventh chapter is about the handling of identical particles with applications to the helium atom while the last chapter is about the basics of relativistic quantum theory (a.k.a the Dirac equation).
Now, what are the positive aspects of this book? Well, they are as follows:
1) It uses Dirac notation in almost all of its treatments and thus, the reader gets used to the notation and he/she starts to consider the state as the fundamental thing instead of the wavefunction (David Wallace might not like it 🙂 ). Moreover, he emphasizes the use of unitary operators in Hilbert space. This is very useful to get the concepts straight.
2) Many (almost all) books on quantum mechanics do not consider the case when the degeneracy is not removed in the first order while using the degenerate perturbation theory (by the way, if anyone is interested in the treatment of this case, he/she should see Barton Zweibach's lecture on this case. He treats it very clearly and rigorously). Sakurai is no exception to this statement. However, it gives an exercise in which he talks about this situation.
3) The number (and quality) of exercises provided are very useful and often, very pedagogical.
4) It presents useful methods in the treatment of angular momentum calculations. Most useful is the proof of (and use of) the Wigner-Eckart theorem. This theorem simplifies the problems so much but it is absent from many textbooks on quantum mechanics.
What about the negative points? Here they are.
1) Sometimes (not many a times but sometimes only) this book is not rigorous. The treatment of scattering from the start is not clear enough (although it becomes clear later). The main reason for this absence of rigor is the use of plane waves as the incident and final states (which is a problem independent of this book). The big-box approximation makes things less rigorous and elegant.
2) The same reason makes the treatment of quantization of electromagnetic field very obscure. I think that he shouldn't have included this topic in this book. The proper treatment of the quantization of the electrical field (and even the scalar field) needs quantum field theoretical methods but he is again doing it in the big box approximation with finite volume. That topic is not very helpful in this book (although the derivation of the Casimir effect that he does is very elegant and appealing).
I hope this was helpful. Happy reading.
First of all, let's look at the eight chapters of the book. In the first chapter, he talks about bra ket formalism (a.k.a the Dirac notation). The second chapter talks about dynamics (and gauge transformations) while the third chapter (one of the most important chapters of the book) is about angular momentum and related techniques. The fourth chapter is about symmetries (parity and time translations in particular) while the fifth chapter (again, a very important chapter) is about the approximation methods (perturbation theory, variational principle, and WKB approximation). The sixth chapter (super important chapter) is about non-relativistic scattering (and it talks about partial wave analysis with many other approximations -e.g. Born approximation- and applications -e.g. applications to nuclear form factor calculations-). The seventh chapter is about the handling of identical particles with applications to the helium atom while the last chapter is about the basics of relativistic quantum theory (a.k.a the Dirac equation).
Now, what are the positive aspects of this book? Well, they are as follows:
1) It uses Dirac notation in almost all of its treatments and thus, the reader gets used to the notation and he/she starts to consider the state as the fundamental thing instead of the wavefunction (David Wallace might not like it 🙂 ). Moreover, he emphasizes the use of unitary operators in Hilbert space. This is very useful to get the concepts straight.
2) Many (almost all) books on quantum mechanics do not consider the case when the degeneracy is not removed in the first order while using the degenerate perturbation theory (by the way, if anyone is interested in the treatment of this case, he/she should see Barton Zweibach's lecture on this case. He treats it very clearly and rigorously). Sakurai is no exception to this statement. However, it gives an exercise in which he talks about this situation.
3) The number (and quality) of exercises provided are very useful and often, very pedagogical.
4) It presents useful methods in the treatment of angular momentum calculations. Most useful is the proof of (and use of) the Wigner-Eckart theorem. This theorem simplifies the problems so much but it is absent from many textbooks on quantum mechanics.
What about the negative points? Here they are.
1) Sometimes (not many a times but sometimes only) this book is not rigorous. The treatment of scattering from the start is not clear enough (although it becomes clear later). The main reason for this absence of rigor is the use of plane waves as the incident and final states (which is a problem independent of this book). The big-box approximation makes things less rigorous and elegant.
2) The same reason makes the treatment of quantization of electromagnetic field very obscure. I think that he shouldn't have included this topic in this book. The proper treatment of the quantization of the electrical field (and even the scalar field) needs quantum field theoretical methods but he is again doing it in the big box approximation with finite volume. That topic is not very helpful in this book (although the derivation of the Casimir effect that he does is very elegant and appealing).
I hope this was helpful. Happy reading.
August 28, 2015
The best book that presents QM in clarity and elegance. A perfect book to bring to a beach for those who are abnormal.
September 8, 2014
I feel entertained and smarter.
January 26, 2024
Modern Quantum Mechanics de Sakurai y Napolitano es sin duda un libro para estudiantes de Física a nivel "Graduate". El tratamiento matemático es formal y no es para cualquiera, se requiere cierta madurez tanto en la física como en el uso de las herramientas matemáticas.
- Capítulo 1. Fundamental Concepts.
Sakurai realiza una descripción de los experimentos que provocaron la necesidad del nacimiento de la Mecánica Cuántica. En particular se discute el experimento de Stern-Gerlach y la relación con la polarización de la luz.
Posteriormente, se da inicio la formulación matemática de los espacios vectoriales usados en M.C. por medio de la notación de Dirac. Se exploran los conceptos de producto interno, operadores, base de eigenkets, transformaciones y representaciones matriciales, diagonalización y finalmente se construyen operadores físicos como la traslación y se discuten las relaciones canónicas de conmutación.
- Capítulo 2. Quantum Dynamics.
El capítulo inicia con la construcción del operador de evolución temporal con el objetivo de derivar la ecuación de Schrodinger en sus distintas versiones. A lo largo del capítulo se realizan distintas descripciones de la ecuación de S. con potenciales ya conocidos y se desarrolla el marco de Heisenberg para compararlo con el de Schrodinger.
El capítulo finaliza con la derivación de la integral de camino de Feynman y la relación entre el propagador y las amplitudes de transición.
- Capítulo 3. Theory of Angular Momentum.
Se discuten las rotaciones finitas e infinitesimales por medio de los ángulos de Euler con el objetivo de construir los operadores de momento angular y derivar ciertos resultados útiles.
Después de introducir el operador de momento angular se desarrolla el operador densidad y por ende un poco de Mecánica Estadística Cuántica. A mi parecer la sección la metieron en este capítulo, ya que no había donde más ponerla (?????).
Después de ese (???), se procede con la teoría de momento angular y construimos el espectro de los operadores J^2 y J_z, así como la representación del operador de rotación.
Ahora se introduce el momento angular orbital y se desarrolla su relación con el momento angular intrínseco, con los armónicos esféricos y se realizan un par de ejemplos triviales.
Finalmente, se describe la teoría de adición de momento angular, los coeficientes de Clebsch-Gordon, operadores tensoriales y se demuestra el grandioso teorema de Wigner-Eckart.
- Hasta el momento los primeros 3 capítulos son espectaculares y dignos de arduo estudio. Sin embargo, J.J. Sakurai falleció antes de finalizar el libro y sus colaboradores lo terminaron. Tengo que admitir que a partir de este momento la calidad del libro baja de forma abrupta y los temas siguientes son mejores de estudiar de otras fuentes bibliográficas.
Por este motivo no comentaré absolutamente nada de los siguientes capítulos a menos de que lo considere necesario.
- Capitulo 4. Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics.
- Capítulo 5. Approximation Methods.
Los desarrollos principales se basan en la teoría de perturbaciones dependiente e independiente del tiempo. Se desarrolla el marco de interacción y se discute la aproximación adiabática y la fase de Berry. IMPOSIBLE SALTARSE ESTE CAPÍTULO.
- Capítulo 6. Scattering Theory.
Personalmente, fue un capítulo muy doloroso, pero no encontré algún otro libro que realice un tratamiento similar (si sabes de alguno decirme pls).
- Capítulo 7. Identical Particles.
Bonito. Buena introducción al DFT e importante discusión del teorema de Hohenberg-Kohn y de las ecuaciones de Kohn-Sham.
- Capitulo 8. Relativistic Quantum Mechanics.
Como comentario final quiero mencionar que los primeros 3 capitulos son magnificos y no es necesario acudir a otra referencia, ya que el enfoque de Sakurai lo hace autocontenido. Para el resto del libro quiero mencionar un par de referencias que serán de gran ayuda.
- Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications - Nouredine Zettili.
Muy útil para los capítulos 5, 6 y 7 del Sakurai. Útil para el resto.
- Quantum Mechanics - Gennaro Auletta y Giorgio Parisi.
Muy útil para el capítulo 5. Útil para el resto.
- Capítulo 1. Fundamental Concepts.
Sakurai realiza una descripción de los experimentos que provocaron la necesidad del nacimiento de la Mecánica Cuántica. En particular se discute el experimento de Stern-Gerlach y la relación con la polarización de la luz.
Posteriormente, se da inicio la formulación matemática de los espacios vectoriales usados en M.C. por medio de la notación de Dirac. Se exploran los conceptos de producto interno, operadores, base de eigenkets, transformaciones y representaciones matriciales, diagonalización y finalmente se construyen operadores físicos como la traslación y se discuten las relaciones canónicas de conmutación.
- Capítulo 2. Quantum Dynamics.
El capítulo inicia con la construcción del operador de evolución temporal con el objetivo de derivar la ecuación de Schrodinger en sus distintas versiones. A lo largo del capítulo se realizan distintas descripciones de la ecuación de S. con potenciales ya conocidos y se desarrolla el marco de Heisenberg para compararlo con el de Schrodinger.
El capítulo finaliza con la derivación de la integral de camino de Feynman y la relación entre el propagador y las amplitudes de transición.
- Capítulo 3. Theory of Angular Momentum.
Se discuten las rotaciones finitas e infinitesimales por medio de los ángulos de Euler con el objetivo de construir los operadores de momento angular y derivar ciertos resultados útiles.
Después de introducir el operador de momento angular se desarrolla el operador densidad y por ende un poco de Mecánica Estadística Cuántica. A mi parecer la sección la metieron en este capítulo, ya que no había donde más ponerla (?????).
Después de ese (???), se procede con la teoría de momento angular y construimos el espectro de los operadores J^2 y J_z, así como la representación del operador de rotación.
Ahora se introduce el momento angular orbital y se desarrolla su relación con el momento angular intrínseco, con los armónicos esféricos y se realizan un par de ejemplos triviales.
Finalmente, se describe la teoría de adición de momento angular, los coeficientes de Clebsch-Gordon, operadores tensoriales y se demuestra el grandioso teorema de Wigner-Eckart.
- Hasta el momento los primeros 3 capítulos son espectaculares y dignos de arduo estudio. Sin embargo, J.J. Sakurai falleció antes de finalizar el libro y sus colaboradores lo terminaron. Tengo que admitir que a partir de este momento la calidad del libro baja de forma abrupta y los temas siguientes son mejores de estudiar de otras fuentes bibliográficas.
Por este motivo no comentaré absolutamente nada de los siguientes capítulos a menos de que lo considere necesario.
- Capitulo 4. Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics.
- Capítulo 5. Approximation Methods.
Los desarrollos principales se basan en la teoría de perturbaciones dependiente e independiente del tiempo. Se desarrolla el marco de interacción y se discute la aproximación adiabática y la fase de Berry. IMPOSIBLE SALTARSE ESTE CAPÍTULO.
- Capítulo 6. Scattering Theory.
Personalmente, fue un capítulo muy doloroso, pero no encontré algún otro libro que realice un tratamiento similar (si sabes de alguno decirme pls).
- Capítulo 7. Identical Particles.
Bonito. Buena introducción al DFT e importante discusión del teorema de Hohenberg-Kohn y de las ecuaciones de Kohn-Sham.
- Capitulo 8. Relativistic Quantum Mechanics.
Como comentario final quiero mencionar que los primeros 3 capitulos son magnificos y no es necesario acudir a otra referencia, ya que el enfoque de Sakurai lo hace autocontenido. Para el resto del libro quiero mencionar un par de referencias que serán de gran ayuda.
- Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications - Nouredine Zettili.
Muy útil para los capítulos 5, 6 y 7 del Sakurai. Útil para el resto.
- Quantum Mechanics - Gennaro Auletta y Giorgio Parisi.
Muy útil para el capítulo 5. Útil para el resto.
May 1, 2018
Another very good book that is more suitable as a reference text to keep with your for details when you need it than to read it back to back, unless you are a strictly quantum physicist working on pure quantum mechanics (or perhaps, when you are free). Otherwise, it was very useful for my courses which require some quantum-mechanical concepts when I needed e.g. to refer to coherent states and spin dynamics of qubits.
Stopped at the first three chapters since that is all I needed for now.
Stopped at the first three chapters since that is all I needed for now.
September 28, 2018
I used this book as a text in my first year as a physics graduate student at UCLA in 1987-88. They required this book because Sakurai had been at UCLA, but then had died suddenly. The book was unfinished, and so it was completed by a couple of his students. This lends it a rather uneven flavor, and it means that there are better books out there. One of them has now been published by Abers, my instructor in that first year course. At that time, they were just in the form of Notes, but they’ve now been published. Abers’ text is very good. Sakurai’s book has a nice introduction to the two-state system in Chapter one, but the rest of the book is rather ordinary.
January 8, 2025
I have highly mixed feelings about this book. It is the kind of book that is nice if you already understand what it is saying, but understanding what it is saying is a challenge to say the least. Of course, taking this in a course with a good instructor helps a ton, but I tend to not listen in lectures and just read the book which was not a great experience here. Of course, the material is difficult so it can only get so easy, but the notation and lack of explanations here really make some things harder than they need to be. However, this is also partially why it is the go to reference for grad-level quantum mechanics.
November 3, 2025
I really like Sakurai, it was super helpful during my master’s. For a first physical understanding, Griffiths is great to have on the side, it’s another excellent book. But when you get into more advanced, math-heavy stuff, Sakurai’s the one to go for, same way Jackson is for electrodynamics.
May 19, 2019
My favor beginner's book for quantum mechanics.
Read it again and again in my learning process, and always keep it as my goto reference.
Read it again and again in my learning process, and always keep it as my goto reference.
Want to read
October 14, 2019nice
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2021
The second edition is much better
October 12, 2022
Concise.
August 11, 2023
good, readable, good problems
Read
September 14, 2023Just scanned mostly. Great textbook
March 7, 2024
After finishing the book, I have asked myself does this book exist? Do I exist? Is light observable or tangible?
10/10, will give a new perspective on the quantum world.
10/10, will give a new perspective on the quantum world.
January 8, 2026
Thank you for carrying me through Advanced Quantum Mechanics 😮💨
July 18, 2023
sakurai u are so deeply loved (my brain is mush but it's okay because i finally understand vector manson dominance)
August 20, 2023
A diferencia de otros libros, como el Cohen-Tannoudji o el Bransden & Joachain, la introducción de conceptos no parte desde el experimento y la física nuclear, sino que todo lo hace desde las matemáticas y la física teórica. Es por esto que se requiere una mayor familiaridad con conceptos de analisis funcional (espacios de Hilbert). Este es un acercamiento al tema mucho más elegante, riguroso y bonito, aunque sí que se queda corto en contenido frente a otros libros teóricos como el de Steven Weinberg... la ventaja del libro de Sakurai es que se sabe explicar.
Quizás el ritmo de los capítulos dedicados al scattering no es el más idóneo: no profundiza lo suficiente en algunos temas importantes y se extiende en otros aspectos que son menos fundamentales.
Por otro lado, un recuerdo muy feliz que tengo con este libro es que me enseñó a caracterizar las oscilaciones de neutrinos y fue muy guay. Resalto como una de las facultades más notables del libro que tiene unos ejemplos muy ilustrativos y motivadores.
Quizás el ritmo de los capítulos dedicados al scattering no es el más idóneo: no profundiza lo suficiente en algunos temas importantes y se extiende en otros aspectos que son menos fundamentales.
Por otro lado, un recuerdo muy feliz que tengo con este libro es que me enseñó a caracterizar las oscilaciones de neutrinos y fue muy guay. Resalto como una de las facultades más notables del libro que tiene unos ejemplos muy ilustrativos y motivadores.
December 1, 2007
I really enjoyed the first two chapters of this book. It develops quantum mechanics from a small set of assumptions gathered from experimental observations, deriving most of the results that are just assumed in introductory texts. The exercises tie together to help gain familiarity with the material, but sometimes in less than obvious ways.
I haven't read past the first two chapters, but I've been told they were finished posthumously by others and lack the coherence of the earlier ones.
I haven't read past the first two chapters, but I've been told they were finished posthumously by others and lack the coherence of the earlier ones.
December 19, 2007
Best discussion of angular momentum hands down. Excellent exercises. Scattering chapter (completed by others after his death) is the only short-coming.
July 20, 2012
The most readable QM book I have ever used - have returned to it over and over as a resource.
December 29, 2012
Not for beginners, but great after you understand the introductory background. Works for an advanced undergraduate physics student and above.
May 20, 2014
The gold standard in non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics. The text is terse but once you sit through it and make a diligent attempt at the problems the concepts will sink in.
October 11, 2015
You can tell exactly where Sakurai passed away and the new writer took over because the book goes from being excellent to being mediocre.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews