Matrix mechanics for those with wave mechanics background

Question

Just curious:

Is there any book or resource that teaches matrix mechanics (quantum mechanics) only without wave mechanics stuff - meaning that the book assumes wave mechanics background.

Answer 1

What was in the old days called matrix mechanics is today called quantum mechanics in Heisenberg picture: The dynamics is given not in terms of a differential equation for the states (Schroedinger equation) but in terms of a differential equation for the observables, namely Heisenberg's matrices, later recognized as just being linear operators in Hilbert space.

My free online book

Arnold Neumaier and Dennis Westra,
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras,
2008, 2011.

discusses quantum mechanics primarily in the Heisenberg picture, with just enough allowance for the Schroedinger equation to establish the connections.

Answer 2

Modern Quantum Mechanics, by J.J. Sakurai & Jim Napolitano

Answer 3

There is an old book: H.S. Green, Matrix Mechanics, 1965, Groningen: P. Noordhoff, with a foreword by Max Born. As far as I remember, it does not even assume knowledge of wave mechanics, but it assumes some knowledge of linear algebra.

Answer 4

If you want to learn Matrix Mechanics, there's no better book than "Quantum Mechanics in Simple Matrix Form" by Thomas Jordan. It's elementary mathwise; it's a thin book. You'd see matrices everywhere in the book; even the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle (alla non-commutative) is treated that way in the first chapter. Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Simple-Matrix-Physics/dp/0486445305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348358796&sr=1-1&keywords=quantum+mechanics+in+simple+matrix+form#_