Quantum Better advanced Quantum Mechanics book than Sakurai?

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SUMMARY

Sakurai's "Modern Quantum Mechanics" is recognized as a strong graduate textbook, but its latter half lacks the clarity of the initial chapters due to the author's passing. For a more consistent quality throughout, Leslie Ballentine's "Quantum Mechanics - A Modern Development" is recommended. While Ballentine does not match Sakurai's simplicity in explanations, he excels in providing deeper insights into topics such as non-relativistic space-time symmetries and rigged Hilbert space, making it a valuable alternative for advanced learners.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of quantum mechanics fundamentals
  • Familiarity with graduate-level physics textbooks
  • Knowledge of non-relativistic quantum theory
  • Basic concepts of Hilbert space and symmetry in physics
NEXT STEPS
  • Explore Leslie Ballentine's "Quantum Mechanics - A Modern Development"
  • Study non-relativistic space-time symmetries in quantum mechanics
  • Investigate the concept of rigged Hilbert space
  • Review advanced quantum mechanics textbooks for comparative analysis
USEFUL FOR

Graduate students in physics, educators seeking comprehensive quantum mechanics resources, and researchers interested in advanced quantum theory concepts.

Elaren
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Sakurai's Modern Quantum Mechanics is 1/2 of a very good graduate textbook. Unfortunately Sakurai passed away midway through writing it, and it is very obvious exactly where it swapped from their writing to just using their notes. The back half of the book, while by no means bad, is notably less easy to follow. I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a textbook covering the same material at the same level that has a more constant quality thorughout, in line with the first 3 chapters of Sakurai.
 
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Likes dextercioby and jbergman
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Try Leslie Ballentine's "Quantum Mechanics - A Modern Development".

The two things I like most about Sakurai is his style of using the simplest way to make his point and his little insights which aren't highlighted as much in other texts (his treatment of basis vectors in the different pictures and the relationship between symmetry and degeneracy come to mind).

Ballentine doesn't reach Sakurai regarding the first thing (I don't know of a book which does) but he has plenty of the second (non-relativistic space-time symmetries, rigged Hilbert space and interpretation come to mind). His approach is more formal and deductive than Sakurai's but still very well-grounded in the physics.
 
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i am self learning physics. have you ever worked your way backwards again after finishing most undergrad courses? i have textbooks for junior/senior physics courses in classical mechanics, electrodynamics, thermal physics, quantum mechanics, and mathematical methods for self learning. i have the Halliday Resnick sophomore book. working backwards, i checked out Conceptual Physics 11th edition by Hewitt and found this book very helpful. What i liked most was how stimulating the pictures...

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