by

RENSSO CHUNG

A. Motivation
You may ask why one(mathematician)needs to know about quantum mechanics. Possibly the simplest answer is that we live in a quantum world! Quantum mechanics is one our most advanced descriptions of nature!

B. What is quantum mechanics good for?

Where computers are concerned, quantum mechanics are the future(start thinking about quantum mechanics). Etc. Etc. Etc.

C. No One Understands Quantum Mechanics?

Particles being described by waves. The position and momentum being represented as operators. The dynamics being defined by Schrdinger equations. The measurements characterized by probabilities. The entanglement. Schrdingers cat. Uncertainty Principle. Quantum superposition, etc.

D. Description of a physical system

Basically, one can view a theory as a way of describing:
(1) states; (2) observables; (3) dynamics(evolution law); (4) transformations.

D1. States
First, let us recall some general principles of quantum mechanics with refering to specific nature of system S. At each instant of time the system resides in some state. The states of S are described by elements H of a Hilbert space H, called the state space of system S. More precisely, the elements correspondig to states have unit norm, and any two elements , differing by a unimodular complex factor, = exp(i).

D2.Observables
Observables are not functions of states in quantum mechanics.

Any observable A is represented by linear(in general, unbounded) operator: A: HH in the state space.

For physically meaningful observables, this operator is usually self-adjoint.

D.3.1. Dynamics(evolution law)

Our equation should satisfy certain physically sensible properties:

(1) Casuality: the state (t) should determine the state (t) for all later
times t>t.

(2) Superposition principle (3) Correspondence principle: in everyday situations,

quantum mechanics should be close to the classical mechanics we are used to. The first requirement means that should satisfy an equation which is first order in time, namely t ()=A for some operator A, acting on the state space.

D.3.2. Dynamics(evolution law)

When the system is not being measured, the evolution of the its state vector is given by Schrdinger equation:

where the hermitian operator (t) is the Hamiltonian, or energy observable, of the system at time t.

E. The correspondence principle

As Plancks constant h tends to zero, the solution of quantum-mechanics equations result in the solution of the corresponding equations of classical mechanics for the same physical systems.

(Quantum description) (Classical description) h ---> 0

G. The quantization problem

Suppose that we know the classical description of some object related to system S. What can we say then about quantum description of the same objects? The passage (Classical description ) (Quantum description ) is know as quantization.

E. Conclusion
QUANTUM MECHANICS: