Contemporary Physics

ISSN: 0010-7514 (Print) 1366-5812 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcph20

Solution Manual for Quantum Mechanics (2nd

edition), by Ahmed Ishtiaq, Fayyazuddin and
Riazuddin

S.W. Lovesey

To cite this article: S.W. Lovesey (2015) Solution Manual for Quantum Mechanics (2nd edition),
by Ahmed Ishtiaq, Fayyazuddin and Riazuddin, Contemporary Physics, 56:4, 501-501, DOI:
10.1080/00107514.2015.1070912

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2015.1070912

Published online: 03 Aug 2015.

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 Contemporary Physics
Solution Manual for Quantum Mechanics (2nd
edition), by Ahmed Ishtiaq, Fayyazuddin and Riazuddin,
Singapore, World Scientific Publishers, 2014, 324 pp.,
$49.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-981-4541-88-6. Scope:
manual. Level: undergraduate.
Richard Feynman recounted the impact on him when
fellow student Tom A Welton at MIT in the 1930s made
a calculation with the ‘new’ quantum mechanics. Most
significantly, Welton related his result to a measurement
that left Feynman with a sense of wonderment as he
recalled. (Welton is best known as co-author with H B
Callen of the ‘fluctuation-dissipation theorem’. He made
a career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee)
working on classified projects, which explains why little
of his work is published in the open literature.)
Quantum mechanics must be taught in the style that
left Feynman with a sense of wonderment, a practical
discipline with which to make progress in understanding
physics, chemistry and the science of materials and expand
our knowledge of Nature. To this end, students need to
work through problems starting from the first day of their
studies. Learning this way was surely the method favoured
by L.D. Landau, and epitomised in problems that are one
feature of the texts he wrote with E.M. Lifshitz making
them truly outstanding (L & L′, Quantum mechanics 2nd
English edition, vol. 2 in A Course of Theoretical Physics,
Pergamon Press, 1965). Many of problems in L & L′ are
results in the published literature, or Landau’s notebooks,
and their solution demands a very good understanding of
material in the main text.
Most problems in the book under review are not so
demanding on the reader. Rather, the textbook and prob-
lems are a good primer for L & L′ – although the latter is
used as a primary text for serious students of theoretical
physics. There are 160 problems in the manual prepared
by Ishtiaq, Fayyazuddin and Riazuddin, which are
distributed in 21 chapters. There are several ‘Additional
Problems’ at the end of most chapters. Some chapters
have as few as two problems while one, on angular
momentum and spin, boasts 23 problems. The manual
ends with an Erratum for Quantum Mechanics
(2nd edition) by Fayyazuddin and Riazuddin.
In truth, there are not exactly 160 problems about
quantum mechanics in the manual, because some prob-
lems are there to assist the reader with problems on the
main topic. Thus, in chapter 17 entitled ‘Perturbation
induced by electromagnetic field’ the first question asks
for form of the vector potential associated with a steady
magnetic field. This sets up the second question in the
chapter on motion in a steady magnetic field and proper-
ties of Landau levels. The text appears to be relatively
free of typographical mistakes. And those found are
minor, e.g. question 17.3 asks for an expression for the
501
current density ‘j’ and the solution refers to a current
density ‘J’.
S.W. Lovesey
Diamond Light Source Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK
Stephen.Lovesey@stfc.ac.uk
© 2015, S.W. Lovesey
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2015.1070912
Novel Porous Media Formulation for Multiphase
Flow Conservation Equations, by William T Sha, New
York, Cambridge University Press, 2011, 260 + 44 pp.,
$99.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-107-01295-0. Scope:
monograph. Level: postgraduate, researcher, specialist.
Methods to describe flow and transport in fluids have
been based on the foundations of the continuum hypoth-
esis through the work of prominent researchers like
Cauchy, Navier, Stokes and others. Based on the contin-
uum hypothesis, a set of partial differential equations has
been developed to describe the transport of conservative
quantities in fluid systems. However, applying these
equations to study flow and transport in porous media
seems to have been, prematurely, failed, primarily,
because of the complex internal structure of any natu-
rally occurring porous media that is even not known a
priori. This, therefore, motivated researchers to search
for an appropriate framework through which transport
phenomena in porous media may be described. The
experimental work conducted by Henri Darcy in the
mid-nineteenth century rose to our attention another con-
tinuum description that may be established in which
transport processes in porous media are adequately
described. It also highlighted that, for the sake of our
engineering and practical applications, it may suffice to
consider integral information rather than comprehensive,
complete details. This has motivated researchers around
the mid-twentieth century to establish the foundations of
the continuum approach in porous media. Theories like
the method of volume averaging, method of homogenisa-
tion, theory of mixtures, etc. have been successfully
developed and applied to porous media through which it
was possible to derive Darcy’s law and beyond. In this
framework, field variables represent continuous functions
of space and time, and therefore the tools applying to
continuous functions become available at our disposal. It
has also been realised that this framework can be used to
homogenise systems that are complex in their structures
e.g. metallic foams and even nuclear reactor cores.
Within this context has been the contribution of
William Sha towards the extension of upscaling theories
to encounter different systems, particularly those related
to nuclear reactors. Apparently, nuclear reactor cores are