Exploring Quantum Mechanics: A Collection of 700+ Solved Problems for Students, Lecturers, and Researchers

by Victor Galitski, Boris Karnakov, Vladimir Kogan

A series of seminal technological revolutions has led to a new generation of electronic devices miniaturized to such tiny scales where the strange laws of quantum physics come into play. There is no doubt that, unlike scientists and engineers of the past, technology leaders of the future will have to rely on quantum mechanics in their everyday work. This makes teaching and learning the subject of paramount importance for further progress. Mastering quantum physics is a very non-trivial task and its deep understanding can only be achieved through working out real-life problems and examples. It is notoriously difficult to come up with new quantum-mechanical problems that would be solvable with a pencil and paper, and within a finite amount of time. This book remarkably presents some 700+ original problems in quantum mechanics together with detailed solutions covering nearly 1000 pages on all aspects of quantum science. The material is largely new to the English-speaking audience.

The problems have been collected over about 60 years, first by the lead author, the late Prof. Victor Galitski, Sr. Over the years, new problems were added and the material polished by Prof. Boris Karnakov. Finally, Prof. Victor Galitski, Jr., has extended the material with new problems particularly relevant to modern science.

Genres: Physics, Quantum Mechanics

898 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Christine Cordula Dantas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic set of problems in quantum mechanics with detailed solutions provided. I did not work all of them, of course, that will take a whole lifetime for me at this point of my life, but I did advance some of them and browsed some problems that were known to me. I would love to have had this in my undergraduate and graduate days, but I am sure it will delight me from time to time just to read or try solving some of those. I don't know what teachers do this days to come up with new and enlightening problems for exams or homework. But of course what matters most is understanding in depth the concepts than just learning how to calculate things (without really understanding what lies underneath). Calculation is evidently important and should be worked as a skill, and for that this book helps. But most importantly one should work at understanding the material and for that one should look at the various excellent text books available.