Exploring Quantum Physics

A challenging advanced physics class, not for dilettantes. Not really intended as a first introduction to quantum mechanics, this course is aimed at upper-level undergraduates or lower-level grad students in physics and related fields. You should be comfortable with complex numbers, partial differential equations, and linear operators before starting this class.

The presentation is uneven. Professor Galitski covers the first half of the class and his lectures are difficult but relatively understandable. The homework assignments are much easier than the difficulty of the lectures would suggest. Professor Clark covers the second half of the class. His lectures are also difficult and somewhat less easy to understand. The homework assignments for this part of the course are much harder. The final exam is also very hard.

I would not buy the recommended textbook co-written by Galitski. I paid over $60 for it and did not find it helpful at all for this class. It seems to be written at a higher level than this class and is more a book of (advanced) worked problems than a tutorial. A book like Griffiths' Introduction to Quantum Mechanics would have been more helpful.