There are no required books for the class, but you will need to read on the lecture topics in some of the following references. Specific readings are suggested in the table below, where the texts are referred to by number.
Texts You Can’t Do Without
[Nitzan] = Nitzan, Abraham. Chemical Dynamics in Condensed Phases. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780198529798.
This is a wonderful new book that thoroughly covers all topics that you might care to learn about for time-dependent quantum mechanics relevant to the condensed phase. We will follow the treatment of several topics in this book.
[Schatz] = Schatz, George C., and Mark A. Ratner. Quantum Mechanics in Chemistry. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002. ISBN: 9780486420035.
This is an important book to have. It has the most overlap with the topics we will cover, uses a similar language and notation, and treats the problems at a similar level.
Additional References
These are excellent readings for the lecture topics, and problems are often drawn from them.
[McHale] = McHale, J. L. Molecular Spectroscopy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. ISBN: 9780132290630.
This text covers basic light matter interactions, correlation functions, and various molecular spectroscopies.
[Merzbacher] = Merzbacher, E. Quantum Mechanics. 3rd ed. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1997. ISBN: 9780471887027.
General physics text for quantum dynamics, perturbation theory, light-matter interactions.
[Mukamel] = Mukamel, S. Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780195132915.
This is an advanced text that treats quantum dynamics, correlation functions, response functions, coupling of a system to a bath, and nonlinear spectroscopy.
[Sakurai] = Sakurai, J. J. Modern Quantum Mechanics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993. ISBN: 9780201539295.
[Tannor] = Tannor, D. J. Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: A Time-Dependent Perspective. Sausilito, CA: University Science Books, 2006. ISBN: 9781891389238.
This appears to be a wonderful new quantum textbook at the level of this class. It was just published, so I haven’t had time to digest it yet, but it clearly will be an excellent reference.
Electromagnetic Waves
[Jackson] = Jackson, J. D. Classical Electrodynamics. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. ISBN: 9780471309321.
Useful for light-matter interactions. Chapter 6 describes vector and scalar potentials and chapter 7 talks about plane waves.
Correlation Functions
[Berne] = Berne, B. J. Physical Chemistry: An Advanced Treatise. Vol. VIIIB. Edited by D. Henderson. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1972. ISBN: 9780122456589.
[Zwanzig] = Zwanzig, R. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry 16 (1965): 67.
[Gordon] = Gordon, R. G. Adv Magn Reson 3 (1968): 1.
[McQuarrie] = McQuarrie D. A. Statistical Mechanics. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1976. ISBN: 9780060443665.
Useful for correlation function description of spectroscopy.
[Wang] = Wang, C. H. Spectroscopy of Condensed Media: Dynamics of Molecular Interactions. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780127347806.
Density Matrix and Relaxation
[Blum] = Blum, K. Density Matrix Theory and Applications. New York, NY: Academic Press Inc, 1996. ISBN: 9780306453410.
[Slichter] = Slichter, C. P. Principles of Magnetic Resonance with Examples from Solid State Physics. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1963.
Suggested Readings
| LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Time-independent Hamiltonian | [Nitzen] Chapter 2 |
| 2 | Time-dependent Hamiltonian | |
| 3 | Irreversible relaxation | [Nitzen] Chapter 9 |
| 4 |
Classical description of spectroscopy Interaction of light and matter Absorption cross-section |
[Schatz] Chapter 5; [Nitzen] Chapter 3; [McHale]; [Merzbacher]; [Sakurai] |
| 5 | Time correlation functions | [Nitzen] Chapter 6; [McHale]; [McQuarrie] Chapter 21; [Berne]; [Zwanzig]; [Gordon]; [Wang]; [Blum] |
| 6 | Absorption lineshapes | [Schatz] Chapter 10; [Nitzen] Section 12.5 |
| 7 | Linear response theory | |
| 8 | Displaced harmonic oscillator | |
| 9 | Fluctuations: Gaussian stochastic model | [Nitzen] Chapters 7 and 12; [Mukamel]; [Blum] |
| 10 | Fluctuations: energy gap Hamiltonian | |
| 11 | Vibrational relaxation | [Nitzen] Chapters 9 and 13 |
| 12 | Density matrix | [Slichter] |
