Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements by Julian Schwinger | (PDF) Free Download

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A unique legacy, these lecture notes of Schwinger’s course held at the University of California at Los Angeles were carefully edited by his former collaborator Berthold-Georg Englert and constitute both a self-contained textbook on quantum mechanics and an indispensable source of reference on this fundamental subject by one of the foremost thinkers of twentieth century physics.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly 量子力学と原子の測定を詳説したJ. シュウィンガーのテキスト.UCLAでの講義を基に、量子現象の基本的概念と研究法、量子速度論、水素類似原子、電子原子、2粒子のクローン問題、電磁放射などの問題が扱われている. Copyright© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review From the reviews:”Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements is not just another textbook on quantum mechanics. Rather, it contains truly novel elements of both content and style. In particular, Schwinger begins his treatment not with de Broglie waves or the Schrödinger equation but rather with the measurement process. His idea is to derive, or at least make plausible, the formalism of state vectors, bras and kets, by reference to quantum measurements such as the Stern-Gerlach experiment. This […] is simply the basis of a new way of teaching quantum mechanics. This opening chapter should be of interest to all scholars of quantum theory and might form a new topic of research for philosophers of quantum mechanics.” (Contemporary Physics, 44/2, 2003)”There are dozen of excellent textbooks on the market. But this one really is different.” (T. Kibble, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 2001)”The material covered is superficially similar to that of a typical graduate quantum mechanics course […] However, each chapter has beautiful and unusual treatments of familiar topics. […] This book would make an outstanding supplement and reference for a graduate quantum mechanics course. Theoretical physicists will delight in this wonderful book, which should be available in the library system of any institution with a research or graduate program in physics. Graduate students through professionals.” (CHOICE, Dec. 2001)”The book is a tour-de-force. Once the groundwork is laid, he goes into subjects with the mathematical virtuosity for which he was famous – not advanced mathematics, but the incredible use of simple mathematics. … there are gems throughout the book. … it is a wonderful book for a professor to own, like Feyman’s lectures, because there is so much to learn from it. … The book was lovingly edited from some UCLA lecture notes, by Berthold-Georg Englert, a longtime student and assistant of Schwinger’s … .” (Daniel Greenberger, American Journal of Physics, Vol 71 (9), 2003)”Editor Englert has performed a service for physicists everywhere by making available this book, which is based on Schwinger’s unpublished UCLA lecture notes. … each chapter has beautiful and unusual treatments of familiar topics. … There are excellent problems at the end of each chapter. This book would make an outstanding supplement and reference for a graduate quantum mechanics course. Theoretical physicists will delight in this wonderful book, which should be available in the library system of any institution with a research or graduate program … .” (M. C. Ogilvie, CHOICE, December, 2001)”The book commences with an absorbing prologue in which Schwinger talks us through the development of quantum mechanic and quantum field theory in an easy conversational style. … The book is packed with exercises for the reader to attempt. … Anyone who works religiously through these exercises will acquire a thoroughly adequate command of quantum mechanics.” (W. Cox, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2002 h)”Quantum mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements is not just another textbook on quantum mechanics. Rather, it contains truly novel elements of both content and style. … This opening chapter should be of interest to all scholars of quantum theory and might form a new topic of research for philosophers of quantum mechanics. Throughout the text, new material is presented at a breathless pace. All the usual elements of the subject are there, but Schwinger’s presentation reveals surprises in even the most familiar of these.” (S. M. Barnett, Contemporary Physics, Vol. 44 (2), 2003)”In the beginning, the editor has added an important material in the form of a prologue … . This is one of the best treatments of the philosophy of quantum mechanics, which I have come across. … One of the major features of the book is the incorporation of a large number of problems … . the contents of the problems are well integrated in the text and have become part of it. This has caused a rich and tight structure of the logical arguments.” (S. S. Bhattacharyya, Indian Journal of Physics, Vol. 76B (3), 2002)”This unique textbook is based upon the lecture notes that Julian Schwinger wrote up for the students of the quantum mechanics course … . this book would probably make an ideal quantum mechanics reference … . There are a large number of problems included at the end of each chapter, which comprise an excellent resource for any lecturer … . this textbook is a unique resource, which provides an insight into the thoughts and deliberations of one of this century’s giants of quantum mechanics.” (P. C. Dastoor, The Physicist, Vol. 38 (5), 2001)”There are dozens of excellent textbooks on the market. But this one really is different. … there is a carefully argued historical and philosophical prologue that sets the scene, centred on the two key features of quantum physics – atomicity and its probabilistic character; this alone would make the book worthwhile. The emphasis on discrete variables is a very modern approach… . To a theoretical physicist, this book is a delight and a wonderful resource. … This is a book I shall treasure.” (Tom Kibble, Times Higher Education Supplement, September, 2001) From the Back Cover Julian Schwinger, who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for physics with Richard Feynman and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga for his pioneering work on quantum electrodynamics, had a considerable influence on the conceptual development of modern quantum field theory. In addition to being an extremely productive researcher he was also a brilliant teacher, and this book demonstrates his outstanding ability to expose a difficult subject in a clear and concise style. In marked contrast to many textbooks on quantum physics, the whole of quantum kinematics and the underlying quantum action principle, which now bears his name, are derived through a systematic analysis of experimental phenomena, thus avoiding the ad hoc postulates of the axiomatic approach. Many applications, all worked out in detail, follow and culminate in an introduction to quantum electrodynamics.A unique legacy, these lecture notes of Schwingers course held at the University of California at Los Angeles were carefully edited by his former collaborator Berthold-Georg Englert and constitute both a self-contained textbook on quantum mechanics and an indispensable source of reference on this fundamental subject by one of the foremost thinkers of twentieth century physics. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐There are many excellent quantum mechanics in the market. But Schwinger’s book stands out in many ways. It touchesseveral important topics such as Action principle, quantum measurement that are not sufficiently treated in many otherbooks. Even for ordinary topics Schwinger’s treatment often shed a new light into those commonly discussed topics.When asked by young mathematicians for advice on doing research, Laplace answered:”Real Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all.” Schwinger certainly is a great masterof 20th century physics, we should read the great master’s books.Finally, I should not forget mentioning the Springer’s binding quality, again it is consistently low.It is difficult to open the book, I even worry that the book’s spine could be broken if it is fully opened.I have many old books from Springer with perfect printing and binding quality. But what is happeningnow? Learn something from Cambridge, Oxford and Princeton.

⭐This is a fascinating, illuminating, even exciting work. I’m giving it 5 stars, but with the caveat that occaisonally Schwinger’s thought process merely left me confused. I’m sure that had he lived to finish the book those few snags would have been worked out with the editors.One interesting feature is that, once he starts getting into applications,derivations are worked out in great detail, which may make the book look more mathematically dense than it really is. It’s all pretty accessible to anyone who has had undergrad QM. There are also tons of exercises (no solutions, though.) This would make a great supplement to a book like Sakurai’s that takes a more deductive approach. I could even see a talented instructor using it as a primary text.

⭐Good crazy problems, which you won’t see elsewhere!

⭐Schwinger died in 1994, and this book is largely a summation of his lecture notes for courses he gave at UCLA in the 80s. To a physicist who already knows the subject, there are still chances of gleaning insight from Schwinger’s approach.Keep in mind that the notes were for lectures to undergrads and grads. They are not reprints of his journal papers. The latter are somewhat notorious to generations of physics grads. Yes, Schwinger’s work on QED was seminal. No physicist disputes that. But his papers were sometimes so hard to follow. Feynman’s approach was considered much clearer, especially with his refactorings into what we now call Feynman diagrams. These gave an intuition often lacking from reading the analysis in Schwinger’s papers.Anyhow, the level of dissertion in this book is a lot clearer than in those papers. Rather surprising, to me at least. Because my acquaintance with Schwinger was through the journal papers. I never knew that he could write so clearly as he did here.

⭐I presume I do not need to introduce Schwinger’s list of credentials, including a nobel prize for QED alongside with Feynman and the third guy (I’m sorry, I never seem to remember his name). Schwinger has always had his own view of physics, much like Feynman, and in his books he usually follows that view. The consequence is a book on an old subject, such as QM, which includes many new viewpoints and ideas not found in other books, especially in use of action principles, of which Schwinger was a major proponent.That being said, it should be stressed that you should not approach this book without taking a course or two in QM – Schwinger himself states so at the introduction. It would not only make the book hard to follow, but also make it pointless – the whole idea of reading this book is getting a fresh new perspective on QM.For example, instead of stating the “axioms” of QM, Schwinger decides to examine physical experiments and try to see where these axioms come from. He is not always successful in doing that, but at the very least he should get every faithful reader to deeply ponder the foundations of QM. Instead of just writing down Schroedinger’s equation and saying, “this is how our system evolves in time”, he decides to take an action principle as his fundamental rule for time evolution and derive Schroedinger’s equation from it. In short, he turns QM upside down – and gets away with it.It is definitely worthwhile checking out this book, although many will not like the idea of doing things Schwinger’s way – in a sense, the book’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. You have been warned.

⭐Schwinger has presented in the text the perfect way to do Quantum Mechanics. This book is actually transformed from lecture notes given by him for three quarters at UCLA in the mid-1980s. Just look at how he induses the general structure of quantum kinematics and establishes the dynamical principle – his quantum action principle, you would agree with me that it should be on the shelf of every physist, physics teacher and student.

⭐This is how quantum mechanics ought to be written and studied. By reading this book you will be learning from a true master!

⭐The book despite its high price have a terrible binding. Something typical from Springer. But the book is thick ~ 400 pages & it will not withstand heavy use. If a paperback version or a kindle version is available go for it. This is a fake hardcover. It’s the same thing Springer issued these days as a ‘hardcover book’ which is actually a paperback glued to hardcover. This is so horrible because there nothing that binds the spine of the book to the cover. In case you drop, that’s the end of it ! The side cover is what holding the book to the cover.What’s wrong with publishers these days ? This same practice is done by other publishers too including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard etc. except for Princeton. Princeton needs to show these publishers how hardcover binding is done. The worst thing is that these hardcover are very expensive. What’s the point of getting a hardcover book if it’s not durable ?As for the book it’s okay for a note. Of course, it’s Schwinger so the book still have the master’s touch but it’s way too diluted. If only he completed it & made it a full fledged text it would be on a whole new level. This book is edited from Schwinger’s note by his students so you get a feeling of incompleteness. Don’t even think of using it as a textbook which this is far from being one. Like his other book on classical electrodynamics, it’s meant to be used as a supplement to a regular text. As a supplement text, its price right now don’t do justice. At this price one can get a full textbook that too from from foreign publishers not to mention the low priced India edition. My suggestion wait for a cheap paperback or even kindle edition. Invest on you main textbook first.

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