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Books on Quantum Mechanics?

manjunaths asks: "I would like to ask the physicists here to recommend some books on Quantum Mechanics. For those of us who have a decent background in calculus and have done some advanced physics (field theory, network theory etc.,). The books must have math as well as theoretical explanation. If it has examples which explain/relate to real world physics that would be really nice."

3 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds like Feynman's texbooks by epsilon720 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Six Easy/Not-So-Easy Pieces actually have very little quantum physics in them, but they do have a good deal on simple and relativistic mechanics, as well as symmetry and space-time. They are definitely both good reads, but probably not what you're looking for.

  2. Re:Griffiths by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Griffiths E&M text is in my opinion finest upper-level undergrad text on the subject.His quantum book, as many have already said, is of comparable quality.

    However, I'd argue that Shankar's Principles of Quantum Mechanics book does one better. It's clear, concise, and surprisingly complete. I wouldn't want to learn QM without it.

  3. books! by foog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As others have pointed out, the Feynman lectures are probably what you want. But hey, I gotta weigh in with my big physicist ego, and maybe you actually want to solve problems and stuff (which you won't learn from the Feynman lectures [1]), so here goes:

    I haven't seen Griffith's QM text, must've been released in the last ten years. I'm not that big a fan of his E&M text. (Purcell is clearer and more elegant.)

    Cohen-Tannoudji, which others have recommended, is an encyclopaedic treatment of non-relativistic QM, and was the de facto standard introductory graduate text for a long time. IMO it's very dryly translated from the French and tedious to learn from. If you have to really do this stuff, you'll probably end up with a copy, though. It's all in there.

    The raves about Shankar---also newer than my education---on Amazon seriously tempt me.

    My favorite introductory QM text for a long time was Liboff. Odd that no one has recommended it yet. Now I really like the underappreciated gem _Quantum Mechanics_ by Amit Goswami (despite the fact he hangs out with Deepak Chopra these days).
    Maybe Griffith is better, but based on my appreciation of his E&M text, I seriously doubt it.

    The Bohm book is a great bargain in the Dover edition, as is Pauling's book (oriented towards physical chemists) but both are very dated.

    [1] Read the introduction or the afterword, where Feynman talks about what a disaster his attempt to teach introductory physics at Caltech turned out to be. And remember that the average student at Caltech is very smart and very motivated, and he was only able to "reach" the top ~10%. The Feynman lectures are marvels in many ways, but they're terrible pedagogy.