Reddit reviews The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (International Series of Monographs on Physics)
We found 6 Reddit comments about The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (International Series of Monographs on Physics). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Oxford University Press USA
This was the one that we used for Cosmology. It starts pretty gentle but moves into the metric tensor fairly quickly. If you don't have the maths I don't know that it'll help you to understand them but it'll definitely have all the terms and equations. As with Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics, the funny haired man himself actually had a pretty approachable work from what I remember when I tried reading it.
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This one has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Given the authors reputation for popularizing astrophysics and the title I think it might be a good place to start before you hit the other ones.
The first thing that popped in my mind while reading your post was: 'woah dude, slow down a bit!'. No, honestly, take things slowly, that's the best advice someone could have given me a few years ago. Physics is a field of study where you need a lot of time to really understand the subjects. Often times, when revisiting my graduate and even my undergraduate quantum mechanics courses, I catch myself realizing that I just began understanding yet another part of the subject. Physics is a field, where you have many things that simply need time to wrap your head around. I am kind of troubled that a lot of students simply learn their stuff for the exam at the end of the semester and then think they can put that subject aside completely. That's not how understanding in physics works - you need to revisit your stuff from time to time in order to really wrap your head around the fundamental concepts. Being able to solve some problems in a textbook is good, but not sufficient IMHO.
That being said, I will try to answer your question. Quantum mechanics is extremely fascinating. It is also extremely weird at first, but you'll get used to it. Don't confuse getting used to it with really understanding and grasping the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. Those are two very different animals. Also, quantum mechanics needs a lot of math, simply have a look at the references of the quantum mechanics wikipedia page and open one of those references to convince yourself that this is the case.
Now, I don't know what your knowledge is in mathematics, hence all I can give you is some general advice. In most physics programs, you will have introductory courses in linear algebra, analysis and calculus. My first three semesters looked like this in terms of the math courses:
These were, very roughly, the subjects we covered. I think that should give you some basic idea where to start. Usually quantum mechanics isn't discussed until the second year of undergrad, such that the students have the necessary mathematic tools to grasp it.
A book I haven't worked with but know that some students really like is Mathematics for Physics by Paul Goldbart. This essentially gives you a full introduction to most of the subjects you'll need. Maybe that's a good point to start?
Concerning introductory texts for quantum mechanics, I can recommend the Feynman lectures and the book by David Griffiths. I know a ton of students who have used the book by Griffiths for their introductory course. It isn't nearly as rigorous as the traditional works (e.g. Dirac), but it's great for an introduction to the concepts and mathematics of quantum mechanics. The Feynman lectures are just classic - it's absolutely worth reading all three volumes, even more than once!
EDIT: added some literature, words.
I've never used Zetilli so maybe it's the best option and I don't know, but Dirac's book is reasonably inexpensive new and quite cheap used on Amazon. I've got a 3rd edition I found in a thrift shop ages ago and it's actually a very pleasant read too, imo.
No; I haven't read it or anything else by Linus Pauling. Have a read and see if it's right for you - that edition is probably going to be more or less the same as (if not identical to) the Dover print.
It looks like a good general introduction to quantum mechanics, and would likely be a good extracurricular read if not for a course. If you're a student in need of a more comprehensive text, I'd probably recommend something slightly more recent and thorough - Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles by Eisberg and Resnick is a great book for that. You could get both, read Pauling's text and then turn to Eisberg and Resnick when you feel Pauling hasn't gone into enough detail or explained something very well.
Ah - I've just seen your earlier post. In which case, the Pauling book would be fine. Again, though, have a scan through the pdf above (in particular, the contents) and make sure it's what you expect/want to read. It might be a little dry. A good in-between might be The Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Paul Dirac, a very recommended text that is comprehensive without being laboriously dull (as far as I've heard). Again, a pdf to peruse can be found here - judge for yourself!
Wow, thanks for the Reddit gold, that's awesome! It's been my pleasure to have the discussion with you. As for a good textbook, I have a few suggestions. For a pretty good broad look at optics from both classical and quantum points of view, give Saleh and Teich a look. For purely quantum stuff, my undergrad textbook was by Griffiths, which I enjoyed quite a bit, though I recall the math being a bit daunting when I took the course. Another book I've read that I liked quite a bit was by Shankar. I felt it was a bit more accessible. Finally, if you want quantum mechanics from the source, Dirac is a bit of a standard. It's elegant, but can be a bit tough.
If I recall correctly, Feynman expanded on an idea that Dirac wrote in the appendices of his quantum mechanics text book. I imagine it was this text: http://www.amazon.ca/The-Principles-Quantum-Mechanics-Dirac/dp/0198520115
And I cannot comment on the propagator definition.