QM mechanics book for review and reference

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 5K views
naftali
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
Hi,

I'm looking for a QM mechanics book, which I could use for review and reference. I've took 3 QM courses, the first two was based on Cohen-tannoudji and Sakurai, and the third was about atoms and molecules etc. , although I haven't studied scattering theory and relativistic QM/QFT. (I took a course on Group theory for physics too).

I will be happy to get recommendations.

The options I thought about are :

1) Landau and Lifgarbagez / "QM non-relativistic theory" : Probably the most insightful and deep book, also covering a lot, although difficult and concise. The drawbacks I see are old-fashioned and annoying notation, and being somewhat too original (for example, I don't see the deriving of harmonic oscillator energies using ladder operators). In addition, according to reviews in Amazon, the last printing fonts etc. are awful ( Does it really so?)

2) Cohen-tannoudji et al./ "Quantum mechanics" : Encyclopedic, quite nice, but not too advanced (for example, doesn't cover Wigner-Eckart theorem). In addition, barely mentions deeper ideas such as symmetry. Very expensive too.

3) Sakurai / "Modern QM" : Seems deeper than Cohen-tannoudji to me, but more abstract and concise. And expensive too. Good amount of problems.

4) Nouredine Zettili / "Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications" : Very readable, and has many solved problems. Covers the material of my two first courses. I understand from reviews that it has many mistakes.

5) Florian Scheck "Quantum Physics" (https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Florian-Scheck/dp/3540256458/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top ) I don't know much on this book, but it looks interesting, and covers some QED too, but with with non-usual attitude which I'm not sure about. Does someone know it?

Thanks,
Naftali
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Thanks for your response.

Fredrik said:
Not sure which ones suit you best, but I think Ballentine should be on that list. It's roughly at the level of Sakurai.

Can you describe its advantages over Sakurai?

Thanks,
Naftali