Recommendations of intermediate-advanced textbooks on Quantum Mechanics

Question

I am currently reading Weinberg's Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (I am halfway through chapter 4, that encompasses angular momentum and spin). While I like the book quite a lot I have noticed that Weinberg's notation is not standard and his approach is very algebraic.

I am looking for other graduate level books that can be complementary for this one. An important factor for me is that it should be a book suitable for independent reading (I am not enrolled in QM courses at the moment) or that if any parts are omitted, they are covered by Weinberg.

I have thought about L&L but I haven't transcended mortality yet so maybe not... I also heard good things about Cohen-Tannoudji, would it be appropriate?

After learning more QM I plan to learn some Quantum Field Theory (I am particularly interested in QCD, from what I know it sounds interesting). I am also interested on nuclear physics (I wish to read Walecka's book in the future). Superconductivity is also on my radar, in particular those parts that involve topology (I have read the first half of Munkres' book).

Thank you!

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Edit: following the recommendation made by @EverydayFoolish I added the paragraph with my topics of interest.

Answer 1

If you want to continue with some books which are of the level of Weinberg but do not use non-standard approaches then the following will be useful-

1. Shankar, Ramamurti (2011). Principles of Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed.). Plenum Press. ISBN 978-0306447907.

This book is fairly rigorous but still feels like a very intuitive pedagogical approach. It is written for grad students but can be read easily by UGs.

2. Sakurai, J. J.; Napolitano, Jim (2017). Modern Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-42241-3.

This book is at a similar level to Shankar. But is somewhat smaller, so the explanations are somewhat shorter. It still is a very good book.

These 2 books also discuss introduction to relativistic quantum mechanics. Which helps you to go to Quantum Field Theory next.

Books more advanced than Weinberg's book-

1. Ballentine, Leslie (1998). Quantum Mechanics A Modern Development. World Scientific.

This is a rigorous book. For example it has a discussion on Rigged Hilbert Space in the 1st chapter which most books do not discuss.

2. Konishi, Kenichi; Paffuti, Giampiero (2009). Quantum Mechanics A New Introduction. Oxford University Press.

It is more complete than Ballentine but less rigorous.

3. Moretti, Valter(2017). Spectral Theory and Quantum Mechanics: Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Theories, Symmetries and Introduction to the Algebraic Formulation(2nd ed.). Springer.

This is a very rigorous book. If you like to read about axiomatic approach to QM you should read this book.

4. Schiff, Leonard (1968). Quantum Mechanics(3rd ed.). World Scientific.

This book is now somewhat outdated. Of course QM hasn't changed much but the way it is taught did change. It is still a good book.

5. Messiah, Albert (1958). QUANTUM MECHANICS TWO VOLUMES BOUND AS ONE. World Scientific.

This book is very very long. Outdated similar to Schiff.

Answer 2

I have found that a good book at an intermediate level is:

• Modern Quantum Mechanics, by JJ Sakurai.

It has modern notation, plenty of applications, and enough detail to be able to follow through self-study if you know basic undergraduate quantum mechanics (at the level of David Griffith's book, for example).

If that material is too basic for you, then another, more advanced (though older), book by the same author is:

• Advanced Quantum Mechanics, by JJ Sakurai.

This includes some QFT applications.

A quick Google seems to suggest that PDFs of both books are available on the web.