Finding Beautiful QM Reads for Undergrad Exam

[Peppe]

I'm looking for good books to give me some more "taste" on beautiful aspects of QM. I'm actually studying for my undergraduate exam on the 27th november that comes in a strong academic flavour and would love a relaxed but deep reading.

For example i totally loved Robbins's "What is mathematics?" while studying for my calculus exam or some stuff from Needham's "Visual Complex Analysis" while studying, oh yep, complex analysis :P. I liked how both author guided me through arguments i already studied, eventually pointing out beautiful things one may eventually ignore while worrying to learn "doing" things. Robbins's paragraph about fundamental theorem of calculus is a huge example at my eyes. I do appreciate but am not really a big fan of Feynman's lectures.

Let me know and pardon the bad english, that's not my first language!

 

[atyy]

I recommend the opening chapter of Landau and Lifshitz's "Quantum Mechanics: Non-relativistic Theory".

http://mattleifer.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/commandments.pdf
Ten Commandments of the Church of the Smaller Hilbert Space

http://www.tau.ac.il/~quantum/Vaidman/IQM/BellAM.pdf
Against ‘measurement’
John Bell

http://arxiv.org/abs/0706.2661
Einstein, incompleteness, and the epistemic view of quantum states
Nicholas Harrigan, Robert W. Spekkens

http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.6451
Informational derivation of Quantum Theory
G. Chiribella, G. M. D'Ariano, P. Perinotti

 

[bland]

I would recommend book by Amir D. Aczel: Entanglement, The Greatest Mystery in Physics. Which is available as an audio book and gets better with repeated listenings.

 

[Peppe]

Thank you for your suggestions! I think i'll love your submissions atyy, i'll let you know :)!

 

[bhobba]

You want to see beauty incarnate in QM? Read chapter 3 of Ballentine - QM - A Modern Develoment:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/9814578584/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Then read Landau - Mechanics:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0750628960/?tag=pfamazon01-20

You will see the dynamics of both Classical and Quantum Mechanics is the same thing - symmetry.

Check out:
http://www.pnas.org/content/93/25/14256.full

But actually seeing the detail is even better - and more eye opening.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Demystifier]

For example i totally loved Robbins's "What is mathematics?" while studying for my calculus exam or some stuff from Needham's "Visual Complex Analysis" while studying, oh yep, complex analysis :p. I liked how both author guided me through arguments i already studied, eventually pointing out beautiful things one may eventually ignore while worrying to learn "doing" things.

I have seen both books you mention, so if you want something on a similar level I would suggest:
F. Laloe, Do we really understand quantum mechanics?
There is a shorter free article version http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0209123
and a longer book version
https://www.amazon.com/dp/110702501X/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Peppe]

Thanks bobba and demystifier! I'll check your suggestions, if you are happy with that i'll report back in a few weeks :)

 

[Demystifier]

Thanks bobba and demystifier! I'll check your suggestions, if you are happy with that i'll report back in a few weeks :)

That would be great!