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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."
There is absolutely no question. David Griffith's Introduction to Quantum Mechanics is by far the best intro book out there.
hmmm...i don't think i'd go quite that far. I just finished a two semester intro to quantum mechanics. Most of my classmates used Griffiths, but I chose Shankar's "Principles of Quantum Mechanics." Although Shankar places more demands on the reader initially(by way of mathematical formalism), it definitely pays off in the long run! Near the end of the course, when we delved into particle phyics and the standard model, I felt far more prepared then my classmates.
On a side note, his introduction to functional analysis and Dirac delta functions was awesome. First time I understood it.
While not mathematical at all, the classic Mr. Tompkins books by George Gamow give one of cearest presentations of what quantum mechanics and relativity are all about.
Mr. Tompkins visits lands where h-bar (Planck's constant) is roughly 1, and where the speed of
light is around 50mph.
The tiger diffracting through tall growing grasses
and Mr. Tompkins having to shoot enough bullets to raise the probability density function to save himself from the tiger are true classics.
Also the relativistic effects seen on a moving streetcar are great!
They do NOT have the math and theoretical underpinnings that you asked for, but they are wonderful introductions.