Modern Topics in Quantum Mechanics





Time/place: Lecture (eKVV):  Wed 10:15-12:00 (online)
Tutorials (eKVV):  Wed 9:15-10:00 (online)
→  link to the Zoom meeting room  (meeting ID: 914 7926 9843; password sent by email)

Instructor: Nicolas Borghini (borghini at physik dot uni-bielefeld dot de) E6-123
 
Oral exam, registration at the end of the semester

Homepage:   http://www.physik.uni-bielefeld.de/~borghini/Teaching/QMplus/
 
News: none 
 
Prerequisites:  Basic knowledge in Quantum Mechanics!  (short reminder)
 
Literature: * your favorite QM textbook in case you need a reminder
* M. Le Bellac,  Quantum Physics
* L.E. Ballentine,  Quantum Mechanics
* D. Griffiths,  Quantum Mechanics
* S. Weinberg,  Lectures on Quantum Mechanics
 
Content: Adiabatic approximation for time-dependent problems  (summary slides)
  April 21  Adiabatic theorem
  April 28  Berry phase
                 → see also  The geometric phase  by Michael Berry
Quantum Mechanics in phase space  (summary slides)
  May 5  Wigner distribution: definition and first examples
  May 12  Wigner distribution: Wigner transform of an operator; evolution equation
  May 19  Wigner distribution: generalizations; Husimi distribution
Quantum Dissipation  (summary slides (July 7 update))
    → the whole notes for the 8 lectures in a single file  (version of July 19, 2021)
  May 26  Two phenomenological models
  June 2  System-environment model; master equation for the reduced statistical operator
  June 9  Example: damped quantum harmonic oscillator
  June 16  Superoperators; Kraus representation
  June 23  Lindblad master equation
  June 30  Lindblad master equation: example; case of Hermitian jump operators
  July 7  Monte-Carlo wave function
  July 14  Feynman-Vernon influence functional
                → short primer on the path integralFeynman's 1948 article on the topic
 
  July 21  Wrap-up
 
Links: Geometric phases and the separation of the world by Michael Berry
An application of the adiabatic theorem:  Theory of Quantum Annealing by Hidetoshi Nishimori