Product Description

Revised edition includes discussions of fundamental topics and newer developments such as neutron interferometer experiments, Feynman path integrals, correlation measurements, and Bell's inequality. DLC: Quantum theory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25293 in Books
• Published on: 1993-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 500 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent text for bottom-up view of QM.
The majority of undergraduate QM texts, e.g. Liboff, Bransden & Joachain, Cohen-Tannoudji, rely strongly upon the wave-interpretation of QM, Schrodinger's equation, and the semi-historical exposition style which invariably invokes the ultraviolet catastrophe. I feel that as an introduction to QM, this is fine. However, this semi-classical approach has the disadvantage that the reader/student has one foot firmly planted in classical thinking, and makes connections to QM only through the emergence of contradictory observations in classical physics. Maybe if you were learning quantum mechanics in 1908 this approach would be fine.

But in the 21st century, perhaps it would be better to start off with one foot planted firmly in the weird, axiomatic and algebraic land of QM first, and to make contact with classical observations later. This is the approach of Sakurai. A quote from Julian Schwinger appropriately summarizes this idea, that this is a "non-historical approach" that "goes to the heart of the quantum experience."

The book does such a good job of explaining fundamentals that I have found it enjoyable to read. Gaps in derivations are suitably placed such that the reader may attack them for exercise. However, they are not detrimental to the progression of ideas. Exercises are suitably difficult, and introduce new ideas that are related to ones in the chapter.

Very good, when supplemented
While teaching qm in the seventies and eighties I preferred Baym. A few years ago I decided on Sakurai and did not regret it. It's necessary to supplement the text with many derivations and details, but this book provides an excellent approach to qm in the spirit of Dirac, and provides a very good takeoff point for discussing the famous measurement problem (was there necessary to enlarge the discussion presented in Sakurai). I motivated the transition to qm by using Heisenberg's The Physical Principles of Quantum theory, where he explains how he was motivated in spirit by relativity theory to give up the idea of predictability of simultaneity of position and momentum. I ended the course by going to the literature and working through EPR and an introduction to quantum computation. A severe weakness: Sakurai assumes that the reader has learned elsewhere about the qm of the hydrogen atom!

A first-class book on quantum mechanics
Sakurai was one of the smartest physicists of his generation, and it shows in this book. A characteristic of the physics writings of such greats as Einstein, Pauli, Heisenberg, and Dirac is that they make advanced physics theories seem so clear and transparent that one is always inclined to think, "of course, that's the way to do it." Sakurai's book comes across the same way, but there are plenty of good problems to bring you back down to Earth. Especially useful are the discussions of Feynman path integrals, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the WKB approximation, Schwinger's treatment of angular momentum, and the Dyson series in perturbation theory.