Open Lectures on Quantum Mechanics

Welcome to Quantum Mechanics - the science of very small and invisible world! Curiosity killed the cat, but not yet in the quantum world. We humans have been very curious to explore the world since our distant ancestors came down from the trees and began to roam around. Even though we’ve been much more curious to explore the quantum world over the last 100 years, we still don’t know whether Schrodinger’s cat is alive or dead. We need more 'curiosity' to clearly determine whether the cat is alive or dead.

This is a collection of open lectures on Quantum Mechanics from educational institutions around the world. This will be a guide for the quantum world explorers who want to have conversations with Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger, Paul Dirac, and Richard Feynman.

1) Quantum Mechanics (Open Yale Courses)
Introductory lectures on quantum mechanics by Prof. Ramamurti Shankar. Key experiments and wave-particle duality; Measurement theory, states of definite energy; Particle in a box; Time-dependent Schrodinger Equation; Summary of postulates and special topics.

2) Quantum Physics I (MIT OCW)
This course covers the experimental basis of quantum physics. It introduces wave mechanics, Schrodinger's equation in a single dimension, and Schrodinger's equation in three dimensions.

3) Quantum Physics II (MIT OCW)
This course covers quantum physics with applications drawn from modern physics: the general formalism of quantum mechanics, harmonic oscillator, quantum mechanics in three-dimensions, angular momentum, spin, and addition of angular momentum.

4) Quantum Mechanics (Stanford Univ.)
Prof. Leonard Susskind explores the quantum world, including the particle theory of light, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and the Schrodinger Equation.

5) Advanced Quantum Mechanics (Stanford Univ.)
Taught by Professor Leonard Susskind, this course will explore the various types of quantum systems that occur in nature, from harmonic oscillators to atoms and molecules, photons, and quantum fields.

6) Quantum Physics (NPTEL)
The course covers lessons in Introduction to Quantum Physics; Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Introduction to linear vector spaces, Characteristics of linear vector spaces, Functions in a linear vector space, Schrodinger equation, Hermite polynomials, Eigenvalues Eigenstates of the Hamiltonian, The energy of the vacuum, Perturbation theory.

7) Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (NPTEL)
The focus of the course is going to be the ideas behind quantum mechanics and its application to simple systems. The course is taught along the lines of development of quantum mechanics so that students get a good feeling about the subject.

8) Quantum Mechanics and Applications (NPTEL)
Basic mathematical preliminaries: Dirac Delta function and Fourier Transforms, etc. One-dimensional problems: Potential well of infinite and finite depths, etc. Three-dimensional Schrodinger equation. Perturbation Theory with applications.

9) Quantum Mechanics (University of Oxford)
Prof. James Binney explains how probabilities are obtained from quantum amplitudes, why they give rise to quantum interference, the concept of a complete set of amplitudes and how this defines a "quantum state".

10) Quantum Mechanics (UC Berkeley)
This course deals with topics in quantum mechanics: basic assumptions of quantum mechanics; quantum theory of measurement; matrix mechanics; Schroedinger theory; symmetry and invariance principles; theory of angular momentum; stationary state problems; variational principles; time independent perturbation theory; time dependent perturbation theory; theory of scattering.

11) Quantum Entanglement (Stanford Univ.)
Entanglement not only replaces the obsolete notion of the collapse of the wave function but it is also the basis for Bell's famous theorem, the new paradigm of quantum computing.

12) Group Theory in Quantum Mechanics
The course utilizes the principles and applications of symmetry analysis to better understand the behavior and spectroscopy of atomic and molecular systems, using symmetry, group representation theory, and Fourier analysis.

13) Quantum Field Theory
This course is intended for theorists with familiarity with advanced quantum mechanics and statistical physics. The main objective is to introduce the building blocks of quantum electrodynamics.

14) Advanced Quantum Theory
This course is intended for theorists with familiarity with basic textbook single-particle quantum mechanics. The main objective is to understand how to study many interacting particles within QM. We will cover second quantisation, scattering theory, and some elementary relativistic quantum mechanics.

More Lectures >>

Profiling the Invisible: Quantum Mechanics and the Unseen Universe

When we explore Nature at distances much smaller than the size of an atom, we find new and mysterious physical principles. At such small sizes, particles are governed by "quantum theory". Quantum theory tells us that some aspects of particle motion cannot be known as a matter of principle. This is a challenge to those of us who would like to do experiments to understand how these particles behave. Fortunately, quantum theory, for all its uncertainty, has its own logic. It predicts patterns in the subatomic world that hold definite information and can be measured to high precision. This lecture will explain how we use these patterns in experiments with high energy particles to learn about the nature of the subnuclear forces and about the structure of the universe.

About the Lecturer
Michael Peskin is an American theoretical physicist and currently a professor in the theory group at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Paul Dirac and the Religion of Mathematical Beauty

Apart from Einstein, Paul Dirac was probably the greatest theoretical physicist of the 20th century. Dirac, co-inventor of quantum mechanics, is now best known for conceiving of anti-matter and also for his deeply eccentric behavior. For him, the most important attribute of a fundamental theory was its mathematical beauty, an idea that he said was "almost a religion" to him.

About the Lecturer
Graham Farmelo is Senior Research Fellow at the Science Museum, London, and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University, Boston, USA.

Modern Physics: The Theoretical Minimum (Stanford Continuing Studies)

Do you want to learn the basic concepts of modern physics through online lectures? You can do it anytime anywhere at your own pace. This is a collection of lectures from a series of courses - collectively called Modern Physics: The Theoretical Minimum. The lectures are all taught by Professor Leonard Susskind and cover essential topics in modern physics and cosmology: classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, Einstein's special/general theory of relativity, statistical mechanics, cosmology, quantum entanglements, particle physics, and string theory.

1) Classical Mechanics
This course explores the theoretical underpinnings of classical mechanics, the mathematical physics worked out by Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) and later by Joseph Lagrange (1736 - 1813) and William Rowan Hamilton (1805 - 1865).

2) Quantum Mechanics
Quantum theory governs the universe at its most basic level. Taught by Professor Leonard Susskind, this course explores the quantum world, including the particle theory of light, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and the Schrodinger Equation.

3) Special Relativity
This course takes a close look at the special theory of relativity and also at classical field theory. Concepts addressed here will include space-time and four-dimensional space-time, electromagnetic fields and and Maxwell's equations.

4) General Relativity
Professor Leonard Susskind focuses on the general theory of relativity. He uses the physics of black holes extensively to develop and illustrate the concepts of general relativity and curved spacetime.

5) Statistical Mechanics
Leonard Susskind discusses the study of statistical analysis as calculating the probability of things subject to the constraints of a conserved quantity. And he introduces energy, entropy, temperature, and phase states as they relate directly to statistical mechanics.

6) Cosmology
This course concentrates on cosmology, taking a close look at the Big Bang, the geometry of space-time, inflationary cosmology, cosmic microwave background, dark matter, dark energy, the anthropic principle, and the string theory landscape.

7) Quantum Entanglements - Part 1
The old Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics associated with Niels Bohr is giving way to a more profound interpretation based on the idea of quantum entanglement. In this course, Professor Leonard Susskind explores "quantum entanglements" in modern theoretical physics.

8) Particle Physics 1 - Basic Concepts
In this course Professor Leonard Susskind explores the new revolutions in particle physics, mainly focusing on the subject of quantum field theory. He talks about what a quantum field is, how it is related to particles, energy conservation, waves, fermions etc.

9) Particle Physics 2 - The Standard Model
In this course, Professor Susskind continues his particle physics theme, focusing on the foundations of the Standard Model, which describes the interactions and properties of the observed particles.

10) Particle Physics 3 - Supersymmetry and Grand Unification
Taught by Professor Leonard Susskind, this course explores particle physics with a focus on supersymmetry and grand unified theories. Topics cover supersymmetry, vacuum energy, Fermions and bosons, Grassmann numbers, supersymmetry breaking, Goldstone bosons, and grand unified theories.

11) String Theory and M-Theory
In this set of lectures Professor Leonard Susskind gives an introduction to String Theory, which he describes as a mathematical framework for theories that unify all the forces of nature, including gravity.

12) Topics in String Theory (Cosmology and Black Holes)
This course focuses on string theory with regard to important issues in contemporary physics. Topics include: 1) the impact of string theory on the pursuit of black holes; 2) the string theory landscape and the implications for cosmology; and 3) the Holographic Principle and its applications.

More Physics Lectures