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Daniel

Exploring Quantum Physics

Week 1

Part I: Comments on studying QM

Week 1 - Welcome

Week 1 - Lecture 1: Wavefunctions and Schrödinger Equation

Video: VideoPart I: Comments on studying QM

. Duration: 10 minutes10 min

Video: VideoPart II: Pioneering Experiments

. Duration: 10 minutes10 min

Video: VideoPart III: Pioneering Experiments (cont'd)

. Duration: 8 minutes8 min

Video: Video**Part IV: "Deriving" the Schrödinger Eq.

. Duration: 15 minutes15 min

Video: Video***Part V: Spreading of quantum wavepackets

. Duration: 12 minutes12 min

Week 1 - Lecture 2: A physical interpretation of Quantum theory

Week 1 Homework

Part I: Comments on studying QM

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Hi everybody, and welcome to the first lecture in our course Exploring Quantum Physics. Today, I will
introduce the main formulation of Quantum Theory, Uta Schrödinger, and I'll also tell you a little bit
about the fascinating history of the subject.

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But before going to this main part, I would like to talk about the process of learning quantum physics.
And about why I think so many people find it difficult and frustrating.

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And I hope that this brief discussion will help you avoid this frustration. And make the process of
learning quantum physics here more effective.

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Richard Feynman really doesn't need an introduction. He was one of the heroes and legends in physics
universally recognized as a genius. He was also a great speaker and enthusiastic popularizer of physics.
In 1979, he gave a series of very interesting lectures on quantum physics at the University of Auckland in
New Zealand. They're actually available on YouTube online, and I would encourage you to listen to
them. If you do so, you will see that Feynman spends 30 or so minutes in the beginning of his first
lecture to prepare the audience for what they were going to hear next. And one of the main messages in
this introductory part was that no matter what Feynman were to do, the audience wouldn't really be
able to understand quantum mechanics anyway. Then he talks about physics students and physics
professors and their level of understanding of Quantum Physics. Let's listen to what Feynman had to say
in this regard.

Play video starting at :1:24 and follow transcript1:24

>> If I'm going to explain this to you, the question is, are you going to understand it? Will you
understand the theory when I tell you first, that the first time we really thoroughly explain it to our own
physics students is when they're in the third year graduate physics, then you think the answer's going to
be no. And that's correct. You will not understand it. >> [LAUGH] >> But this business about not
understanding is a very serious one that we have between a scientist and an audience. And I want to
work with you because I want to tell you something.

Play video starting at :2:2 and follow transcript2:02

The students do not understand it either. >> [LAUGH] >> And that's because the professor doesn't
understand- >> [LAUGH] >> Which is not a joke. But very interesting. >> So what Feynman seems to be
saying is that nobody, not even professional physicists, other then himself perhaps, really understands
quantum physics.

Play video starting at :2:22 and follow transcript2:22

Well, this is probably the last thing you want to hear before starting this course. But this is strictly not
my intention to give you the impression that you should give up without even trying.

Play video starting at :2:31 and follow transcript2:31

On the contrary, I'd like to speculate what I think Feynman might have meant there about why I think so
many people find it difficult to study Quantum Physics and other advanced physics subjects.

Play video starting at :2:42 and follow transcript2:42

And I hope that this discussion will help us further down the road when we encounter unusual counter
intuitive quantum phenomenon. Let us look at quantum mechanics from the perspective of all major
physics theories out there.

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In this slide I attempt to present all these theories in a single diagram, which of course is an unrealistic
sort of silly task and so the result I came up with shouldn't be taken to seriously.

Play video starting at :3:9 and follow transcript3:09

What we have here are three axes labeling fundamental physics constants. So here I have the inverse
speed of light. This constant g is the gravity constant which appears in the Newtonian gravity. And along
with the horizontal axis I have the Planck constant, which, as we shall see, is the most important
fundamental constant that appears in quantum mechanics in that it relays the particle and wave
properties.
Play video starting at :3:43 and follow transcript3:43

Now, the red dots in this diagram represent symbolically major fields of physics.

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For example, on this line I have two red dots. So the one which has all, corresponds to all physical
constants being zero is just kinematics or classical mechanics, essentially 17th century physics. So this
dot here with a finite gravity constant but all other constants zero is the Newtonian gravity.

Play video starting at :4:16 and follow transcript4:16

Now moving up the vertical axis to a finite speed of light brings us to a theory which takes into account
this finite speed with which interactions propagate, and this is the celebrated special relativity theory of
Einstein.

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Combining it with gravity results in general relativity, another celebrated, another very famous
geometric theory of Einstein.

Play video starting at :4:45 and follow transcript4:45

Finally moving along the horizontal axis to a finite Planck constant brings us to actually the subject of our
course. Non relativistic quantum mechanics. So there is also this part, which we're not going to discuss
too much in this course combines the relativistic effects and the quantum mechanical effects. And this is
the so called Quantum Field Theory of quantum electric dynamics, a more complicated theory. Actually I
could have other theory, another dot which has all fundamental physics constants. This would be theory
of everything. It doesn't really exist yet but everybody wants to get it, so this has been one of the holy
grails of physics for many years.

Play video starting at :5:32 and follow transcript5:32

Now, going back to the reigning quantum physics and what does it all have to do with it. So, let us
discuss what theory governs our everyday lives. What is sort of our comfort zone?

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And I would claim that we're at somewhere here in this area. Certainly the length scales that we
encounter in our every day lives are much larger than atomic. The velocities are certainly much smaller
than the speed of light. And, well, we do experience gravity on a daily basis, so we're somewhere here.
And here is also where our intuition works.

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And if we say you understand something, what we usually mean by that is that we can relate a
phenomenon to another phenomenon that occurs here in this area.

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So for example, if we were to say that we really understand the quantum mechanical affect, it would
oftentimes imply that we have found a way to relate it by something we already know here.
Play video starting at :6:37 and follow transcript6:37

But the problem with all these advanced physics subjects, especially with Quantum Physics, is that such
mapping, such a relation, is not always possible.

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In other words, it's not always possible to meaningfully project

Play video starting at :6:55 and follow transcript6:55

quantum mechanical phenomenon on this classical axis.

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And if no classical analog exists, this is what we call strange. And this is what we find difficult.

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But on the other hand, if we were to imagine if a fictitious civilization of tiny species that lived on atomic
scales somewhere in this area, so these guys would have had really a lot of problems understanding our
classical work. So the problem is not really with the quantum physics itself, but with our centristic
position on how we want to understand it. But now how do we learn Quantum Physics if we can't really
readily understand it at a intuitive level?

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Fortunately, there is a way to do so.

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By speaking a common language of all physics theories that is not rooted in, and is independent of, our
classical world.

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And this is of course Mathematical Formalism that needs to be developed.

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And it may be true now that two seemingly unrelated phenomena, let's say on the classical side and on
the quantum side, may be explained by similar differential equations or something like that. And by
studying those we can develop intuition about something which is otherwise inaccessible to us.

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But after this discussion you may ask, why bother studying Quantum Physics if it's not really relevant to
our everyday lives? So the motivation comes from experiments. And more recently also from
technological advances that create systems and devices which operate further on the right on this axis.

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The take home message here is that when you study Quantum Physics or any other advanced physics
subject for this matter, you should actually be prepared to encounter phenomena that may appear
bizarre at the first sight, and that you may find difficult to understand.

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When it does happen, don't panic and certainly don't drop the course because of that, and don't assume
that others find these things obvious. It's certainly not the case.

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So I think the best way to understand such new concepts is first understand experimental data that
support them.

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And then develop or understand the mathematical formalism, and the proper theory that describes this
phenomena. So when you use this theory again and again, you will develop your own intuition. And get
the feeling about it deeper understanding of the subject. So speaking about the mathematical side, so I
should mention, of course, quantum mechanics is a demanding subject. And we will have to use certain
advanced mathematical techniques, but there will be lectures with different sort of levels of
mathematical sophistication. Some of them will be pretty advanced, some of them actually won't use
much math at all. And so I hope that all of you with different backgrounds, and different levels of
mathematical preparation will find something that is useful and interesting.

Previously saved note: >> [LAUGH] >> And that's because the professor doesn't understand- >> [LAUGH]
>> Which is not a joke.. Press [CTRL + D] to delete the note