Quantum Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics.

[TAMEPJLAH]

Hi. I am a 3rd year chemistry student and I want to go into quantum chemistry. What bothers me is that when I talk to all the chemistry students in my class their maths and physics is pretty much on 1st year lvl, because of that the physical chemistry courses seem really weak and I feel that if I don't start doing extra study now I will have to do lots of catching up in the next years. I was wandering if you knew of some good textbooks on quantum chemistry and computational chemistry. My maths and physics is on second year uni level. Thanks a lot for any help and suggestions :)

PS: Sorry forgot to change the title. My initial question was going to be how quantom chemistry and quantum mechanics relate. Because I want to learn quantum mechanics in general I was wandering how much extra study I would need to be able to work on non-chemical systems. Or whether I would need to learn the foundation of quantum mechanics before I even go into chemistry. Thanks again for any answers :)

 

[dextercioby]

Typically, a book on quantum chemistry contains the necessary quantum mechanical notions to get you familiar with the concept of covalent chemical bond. The level of mathematics in such a book is the same as the level of mathematics on any introductory QM textbook (such as Griffith's book on QM) and usually contains linear algebra + solving of partial differential equations through the separation of variables method (thus reducing them to ordinary DE's), only quite slightly touching group representation theory, especially for discrete symmetry groups needed to describe molecular structures.

Ira Levine's book on Quantum Chemistry (I have the 2000 edition) is an illustration of my 5 lines above.