Quantum Mechanics II

The follow-up to introductory quantum mechanics, this course pushes past one-particle Schrödinger problems into the machinery you actually need for real systems: spin and angular momentum coupling, identical particles and the statistics that come with them, and — since almost nothing is exactly solvable — perturbation theory, the variational method, and scattering formalism. Expect heavy problem sets out of Griffiths & Schroeter, two midterms and a final all in written/essay format, plus a performance component, with the workload front-loaded onto homework and exam prep. It's the bridge between learning what quantum mechanics says and being able to compute with it on atoms, molecules, and condensed-matter or particle-physics problems, so this is the course whose techniques you'll keep reusing in statistical mechanics, solid state, and any graduate-level physics you go on to take.