Is this a good book to learn quantum physics?

[Vectronix]

Quantum Mechanics of Particles and Wave Fields by Arthur March... Does anyone know of the author? I think I found an error in this book. :(

 

[mpresic3]

I have a copy of March, Quantum Mechanics of Particle and Waves, Dover Ed. I must have been impressed by the topics it or I would not have bought it. First off, I notice that the Dover reprint was of a book that was written in 1951. This is not necessarily bad. If you complete the text you will know QM, but you will not cover any topics in QM that came up during the last 60 years. Nevertheless, the old masters, really new their QM.

It looks like the addition of angular momentum (e.g Clebsch Gordon Coefficients) is not addressed. This is usually in the curriculum for first year physics grad students.

On the other hand, later section in March addressing nuclear physics and field theory are more than what first year physics grads generally take.

Summary, whether March is good depends on your goals. You can certainly learn QM from March, and if you go through it, you may learn a lot that is not covered in physics graduate school programs these days. This may be worth pursuing. If your goal is to what the grad students cover these days and prepare you for recent applications, this is not your book.

March is certainly terse, and I think most common first year textbooks like Shankar, or Sakurai, are an easier read.