Quantum Theory

Phys 351, Fall 2026

Course Web Page

Brooks Thomas

Hugel 020
Physics Department
Lafayette College
730 High St.
Easton, PA 18042

Email: thomasbd@lafayette.edu

Contact Info

Physics at Lafayette

Other Resources

• My Personal Home Page
• Lafayette Physics Department
• Physics Courses

• List of NSF REU Sites
• APS Resources for Students
• Society of Physics Students (SPS)
• CUWiP
• SACNAS
• National Society of Black Physicists

Course Materials and Other Useful Links

• Syllabus
• Resources and Demos Page
• Course Moodle

Textbook

• David J. Griffiths and Daniel F. Schroeter, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Instructor Drop-In Hours

My instructor drop-in hours this semester will be held in Hugel 125. (These are sometimes referred to as "office hours," but in this case that's a misnomer in this case because Hugel 125 is not my office.) These drop-in hours are listed below:


• Mon., 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
• Tues., 12:00 noon - 1:15 PM
• Wed., 3:00 - 4:00 PM

The default assumption is that my drop-in hours will take place in person. However, if the need arises for you to attend my drop-in hours virtually at any point during the semester (e.g., because of a winter-weather emergency or an illness), please email me in advance to schedule a virtual drop-in-hours meeting.

Course Schedule

Class meetings begin at 1:15 PM and are typically 50 minutes in length. However, class meetings will occasionally be longer or shorter than this so various "Fourth-Hour" activities can be incorporated into the schedule. When the duration of our class meeting differs from 50 minutes, that duration is indicated in square brackets after the topic in the schedule below. Salmon-colored boxes indicate various "Fourth Hour" activities. Attendance at and participation in all of these activities is expected. It is possible that the course schedule may change once the semester has begun (due to power outages, instructor illness, etc.), so make sure to keep the entire time block from 1:15 - 2:30 PM free.



Date	Topic	Reading	Homework
Week 1
8/24	Probability and the Wavefunction [75 min.]	1.1-1.3
8/26	Quantum Uncertainty and the de Broglie Relation [75 min.]	1.4-1.6
8/28	Fourth Hour: Mathematica Primer		HW 0 Due
Week 2
8/31	The Infinite Square Well	2.1-2.2
9/2	The Free Particle	2.4	HW 1 Due
9/4	Boundary Conditions and the Finite Square Well	2.6
Week 3
9/7	Potential Barriers	2.5
9/9	Quantum Harmonic Oscillator, Part I	2.3.1	HW 2 Due
9/11	Quantum Harmonic Oscillator, Part II	2.3.2
Week 4
9/14	Fourth Hour: Linear Algebra Review (Tutorial)	Appendix A
9/16	Eigenvalues, Eigenvectors, and Hilbert Space [75. min]	3.1-3.2	HW 3 Due
9/18	The Generalized Statistical Interpretation [75 min.]	3.3-3.4
Week 5
9/21	Deriving the Uncertainty Principle [75 min.]	3.5
9/23	Dirac Notation [25 min.]	3.6	HW 4 Due
	Fourth Hour: Measuring and Collapsing (Tutorial)
9/25	The Schrödinger Equation in 3D	4.1.0-4.1.1
Week 6
9/28	Wavefunctions in Spherical Coordinates	4.1.2
	Fourth Hour: Pre-Exam Review Session
9/30	Mid-Term Exam I
	Fourth Hour: Extended Exam Time
10/2	The Radial Equation	4.1.3
Week 7
10/5	The Hydrogen Atom, Part I	4.2.1
	Fourth Hour: Presentation-Topic Approval Meetings
10/7	The Hydrogen Atom, Part II	4.2.2	HW 5 Due
	Fourth Hour: Presentation-Topic Approval Meetings
10/9	Angular Momentum, Part I	4.3.1
	Fourth Hour: Presentation-Topic Approval Meetings
Week 8
10/12	Fall Break (No Class Meeting)
10/14	Angular Momentum, Part II [25 min.]	4.3.2
	Fourth Hour: "The Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn" (Documentary)
10/16	Spin [75 min.]	4.4.1	Presentation Approval
Week 9
10/19	Spin and Magnetic Fields	4.4.2
10/21	Addition of Angular Momentum, Part I [75 min.]	4.4.3	HW 6 Due
10/23	Addition of Angular Momentum, Part II [25 min.]	4.4.3
	Fourth Hour: Clebsch-Gordan Practice (Tutorial)
Week 10
10/26	Fermions, Bosons, and the Exclusion Principle	5.1.1
10/28	Exchange forces and Their Implications	5.1.2-5.1.3	HW 7 Due
10/30	Time-Independent Perturbation Theory	7.1-7.2	Presentation Abstracts Due
Week 11
11/2	The Fine Structure of Hydrogen	7.3-7.4
	Fourth Hour: Pre-Exam Review Session
11/4	Mid-Term Exam II
	Fourth Hour: Extended Exam Time
11/6	Hyperfine Structure	7.5
Week 12
11/9	The Variational Principle	8.1
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
11/11	The Simplest Multi-Electron Atom: Helium	8.2	HW 8 Due
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
11/13	Chemical Bonding	8.3
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
Week 13
11/16	Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory	11.1
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
11/18	Entanglement: Bell's Theorem and the EPR Paradox	12.1-12.2	HW 9 Due
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
11/20	Mixed States and the Density Matrix	TBA
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
Week 14
11/23	Qbits and the Bloch Sphere	TBA
11/25	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
11/27	Thanksgiving Break (No Class Meeting)
Week 15
11/30	Quantum and Classical Information	TBA
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
12/2	Quantum Logic: Single-Qbit Gates	TBA	HW 10 Due
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
12/4	Quantum Logic: Multi-Qbit Gates	TBA
	Fourth Hour: Presentation Slot (Speaker TBA)
Final Exam
TBA	Final Exam: TBA