Reddit reviews Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Chemistry)
We found 5 Reddit comments about Group Theory and Quantum Mechanics (Dover Books on Chemistry). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
J.F. Cornwell, Group theory in physics: an introduction (link)
W. Ludwig, Symmetries in physics: group theory applied to physical problems(link)
M. Tinkham, Group theory and quantum mechanics (link)
W.-K. Tung, Group theory in physics (link)
E.P. Wigner, Group theory and its applications to the quantum mechanics of atomic spectra (link1, link2)
N. Jeevanjee, An Introduction to Tensors and Group Theory for Physicists (link)
G. Costa, Symmetries and Group Theory in Particle Physics: An Introduction to Space-Time and Internal Symmetries (link)
B. Hall, Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Representations: An Elementary Introduction (link)
R. McWeeny, Symmetry: An Introduction to Group Theory and Its Applications (Dover Books on Physics)(link)
I learned GT from this book. Very focused on solid state physics.
This is also quite good.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Amazon Smile Link: http://smile.amazon.com/Group-Theory-Quantum-Mechanics-Chemistry/dp/0486432475
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.
http://www.amazon.com/Group-Theory-Quantum-Mechanics-Chemistry/dp/0486432475
> What happens if the crystal is not cubic? I assume the circular dichroism cancels in some way, but why?
Cubic crystals tend not to alleviate the degeneracy of the M_J quantum numbers (I'm just talking about atomic transitions here, not crystal states or molecular states). There are situations where imperfections cause symmetry breaking that leads to alleviation of degeneracy, but not in a perfect crystal. This only applies to insulators by the way. If you have a metallic crystal, free currents in the metal can cause circular dichroism.
> In what way do things get complicated, exactly?
You can have chiral molecules, but floating in solution their relative orientations are random. As a result circular dichroism is not measurable in the ensemble unless you can cause macroscopic alignment of the molecules (like in a chiral nematic liquid crystal).
Also, it's complicated because molecular wavefunctions are not as intuitive as atomic wavefunctions. It's tough to figure out whether a molecule will exhibit certain optical properties without doing molecular orbital calculations. Though, group theory can give you a reasonable intuition for many cases.
> Are there any handles I could use to understand things better?
This is a pretty complex topic that requires an understanding of quantum mechanics and group theory. I didn't fully understand all of this until the last year of my Ph.D. You should take some classes in condensed and soft matter, for starters.
There are some books I guess I could recommend:
As for what keywords to use in a literature seach. I couldn't tell you. There are quite a few situations that lead to circular dichroism which require different physics to understand. Without knowing exactly what domain you are working in and the details of what you are trying to do, I can only suggest you look for "circular dichroism" on google scholar.
I posted a comment a while ago describing, in detail, my workflow for understanding a topic. Maybe it will help you figure out what you are trying to figure out.