What is a good introductory book on quantum mechanics?

Question

I'm really interested in the quantum theory and would like to learn all that I can about it. I've followed a few tutorials and read books but none satisfied my need completely.

What is the good introductory guide to QM I cant find/buy ?

I'm new to this it's just a hobby for me but god I love it.

Answer 1

For quantum mechanics, the original is still the best:

• Dirac's "The Principles of Quantum Mechanics".

It's clear, it's terse, and it's comprehensive. All other books take most of their material from this source.

For a basic short introduction to quantum mechanics, you can't beat:

• Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol III

This is very good and intuitive, and complementary to the remaining books.

• Landau and Lifschitz "Quantum Mechanics"

is heavy on good exercizes and mathematical tools. L&L include topics not covered everywhere else. The standard undergraduate books on quantum mechanics are not very good in comparison to these, and should not be used.

A book which requires minimum of calculus or continuous mathematics is

• Neilson & Chuang: "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information"

This focuses on modern research, and discrete systems in quantum computation. If you don't know calculus, learn it, but you might find this book the most accessible. It's long though.

On advanced quantum mechanics, there are good books are by Gottfried and by Sakurai. Berezin's book is also a great classic.

For the path integral, you can read Feynman and Hibbs, but I like Feynman's 1948 Reviews of Modern Physics article more. There is also a good book which covers the path integral:

• Yourgrau & Mandelstam: Variational Principles in Classical and Quantum Physics.

The original source for the Fermionic path integral is still the best, in my opinion:

• D.J. Candlin: Nuovo Cimento 4,224

If you want to convince youself quantum mechanics is necessary, you should recapitulate the historical development. For this, the following source is good:

• Ter Haar's "The Old Quantum Theory" (it's short) to learn Bohr Sommerfeld quantization

You can also read the Wikipedia page on old quantum theory for a sketchy summary, then look at the page on matrix mechanics. This explains the intuition Heisenberg had about matrix elements, something which is not in Dirac's book or anywhere else. Heisenberg's reasoning is also found to certain extent in the first chapters of this book:

• Connes "Noncommutative geometry".

This book is also very interesting for other reasons.

Answer 2

OK. First, you need a some comfort in Linear Algebra. Go to the MIT Open Courseware site and watch the Linear Algebra lecture (videos) by Strang. These are great.

Next, watch the "Theorectical Minimum" videos by Leonard Susskind . They represent the theoretical minimum that you need to know about quantum mechanics. (i.e. the title of the video course is theoretical minimum, but it is in fact a course on quantum mechanics. Susskind is a great teacher and the videos are great. You can access them on itunes and You Tube. Search for Susskind lectures quantum mechanic from Stanford. They are just released (a few weeks ago)

Finally, the text you want is Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Shankar (he is from Harvard). He is also a great teacher. He does have some video lectures on general physics, but he does not have a video lecture on Quantum Mechanics. Nonetheless, his book is a great book for learning. It is about $70, but if you google around (with PDF in your google search) you may get lucky.

Answer 3

For the begining you can start with Quantum Mechanics for Engineers - Leon van Dommelen, its available freely on the author's site:

http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~dommelen/quantum/style_a/index.html

Let the author speak for himself:

Here you will find the same story as physicists tell there own students. The difference is that this book is designed to be much easier to read and understand than comparable texts. Quantum mechanics is inherently mathematical, and this book explains it fully. But the mathematics is only covered to the extent that it provides insight in quantum mechanics. This is not a book for developing your skills in clever mathematical manipul­ations that have absolutely nothing to do with physical under­standing. You can find many other texts like that already, if that is your goal.

Answer 4

Feynman's Six Easy Pieces is an excellent introduction to quantum mechanics. For a more thorough analysis (and some philosophical ruminations), I'd recommend The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav. For an easy-to-understand discussion of the weirdness of quantum mechanics, Fred Kuttner and Bruce Rosenblum's Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness is excellent.

Here's an Amazon list I put together with some books I've found helpful.

• Robert Kroese, author of Schrödinger's Gat

Answer 5

I don't know why this book I am going to recommend is completely out of print and almost forgotten. I discovered it when I was a beginning undergraduate. It is extremely useful and clear, introducing a lot of topics (even some nuclear and particle physics), and yet it is very small:

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, by Paul Taunton Matthews, 1974, McGraw-Hill

After it, I could jump to Sakurai's Modern Quantum Mechanics and other standard 'big' books.

Answer 6

I, too, was looking for a book that would help me understand the basic concepts of quantum physics. I bought several books, but none of them provided what I was searching for. Then I was told about a certain book, but the title deterred me from buying it - I expected it to be 'new agey'. However, a friend of mine bought it and so I was able to take a look at it...and the science part provided EXACTLY what I had had in mind! Needless to say, I purchased it and I'm grateful I did. One thing you should know, though, is that the author (who is a 'renowned' scientist) takes the findings in QP to prove his point that our thoughts are powerful in ways most of us would never dare to imagine. Of course, if you are only interested in the basic scientific knowlege of QP, then take what is good and leave the rest behind. You don't have to 'believe' one thing he says ;-)...and it is still the best book I've found on QP for amateurs. The book's title is "The Science behind the Secret - Decoding the Law of Attraction". This is a link to the book at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Science-Behind-Secret-Decoding-Attraction/dp/1439133395/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357400912&sr=1-1&keywords=the+science+behind+the+secret . I'd take a look inside to see if this is indeed what you are looking for.

Answer 7

If you're new to this, start with University Physics by Young and Freedman. The reason is that this book discusses the concepts without the rigorous math.

Study the following chapters:

Chapter 38 Photons: Light Waves Behaving as Particles Chapter 39 Particles Behaving as Waves Chapter 40 Quantum Mechanics Chapter 41 Atomic Structure

Chapters 38 and 39 give you background of early quantum theory. Chapter 40 and 41 discusses quantum mechanics.

You can also read Feynman Lectures Volume 3 to grasp the concepts without heavy math.

If you want to dig deeper, you have to study linear/matrix algebra and calculus. Afterwards, read Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David Griffiths or Richard Liboff.

Then if you want more, read Modern Quantum Mechanics by J.J. Sakurai.

That's how I suggest you do it. Quantum Mechanics is, unfortunately, on of the more difficult physics subjects. You have to build you knowledge from easier texts or else you will get lost.

Watching lectures is also an option. Stanford and Oxford uploaded their QM lectures in Youtube. Then again, you have to know calculus and linear algebra to be able to keep up with the lectures.

Cheers!

Berty

Answer 8

I would suggest "Quantum physics of atoms, molecules, solids, nuclei, and particles" by Robert Martin Eisberg, Robert Resnick, if you want to have very good understanding without sophisticated mathematics. With emphasis on applications ,the authors discussed every topics with physical insigth, without much more mathematics (but need to know some basic calculus).The book explains you how microspcoic world works.

Answer 9

Quantum Mechanics in Simple Matrix Form: [Amazon link]

No calculus is found in this book. All concepts in linear algebra are introduced. Unfortunately, this means you won't encounter stuff like the Schrodinger equation. You will have a much better than PBS understanding of quantum mechanics (what is quantum state, how you can add states, probability in quantum mech, etc.). Lightweight and cheap!

Answer 10

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat by John Gribbin