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I had self-studied Griffiths(~ 4 chapters), and Sakurai (~2.5 chapters) for quantum mechanics some months ago. Now, I have to take a course in QM this sem, and I want to further my understanding of basic QM. I am looking for a textbook that is more advanced than the one mentioned above, possibly more mathematically inclined, and that will give me a different perspective. In particular I am looking for a book that is more modern and discusses QM, through examples in modern theoretical physics. Also, I have been trying to study QFT, but I think I lack in my understanding of QM, and don't have enough intuition (I don't know if it is possible to develop physical intuition in QM. But I at least want to develop some kind of mathematical intuition).

One book that comes to mind is Ballentine - Modern QM. But I went through it, and I didn't find it that detailed. So, it would be great if you could recommend some other book.

I also know about Cohen-tannoudji et al, and I don't quite like it.

Some online concise notes, that give a different perspective would also do.

Qmechanic
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2 Answers2

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I am currently reading the Cohen-Tannoudji (ISBN-10: 0471569526) course. I find it good because things are down using real maths. The author is not afraid of algebra and vector spaces, and demonstrations are quite rigorous.

The course starts with basic QM and ends with a level that allows to understand phenomena like fine or hyperfine structure, and many others. The books are filled with many examples and several applications of the theory.

There is two volumes, the total is about a thousand pages, which gives you some time to go deep in QM. I reading it for months and still find very interesting things to do.

Emilio Pisanty
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ChocoPouce
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I recommend Richard Fitzpatrick's lecture notes. They are mathematically rigorous and available freely online, along with his graduate level QM notes. Pasted here is the outline for the undergraduate course:

Outline of Course

The first part of the course is devoted to an in-depth exploration of the basic principles of quantum mechanics. After a brief review of probability theory, in Chapter 2, we shall start, in Chapter 3, by examining how many of the central ideas of quantum mechanics are a direct consequence of wave-particle duality--i.e., the concept that waves sometimes act as particles, and particles as waves. We shall then proceed to investigate the rules of quantum mechanics in a more systematic fashion in Chapter 4. Quantum mechanics is used to examine the motion of a single particle in one dimension, many particles in one dimension, and a single particle in three dimensions, in Chapters 5, 6, and 7, respectively. Chapter 8 is devoted to the investigation of orbital angular momentum, and Chapter 9 to the closely related subject of particle motion in a central potential. Finally, in Chapters 10 and 11, we shall examine spin angular momentum, and the addition of orbital and spin angular momentum, respectively. The second part of this course describes selected practical applications of quantum mechanics. In Chapter 12, time-independent perturbation theory is used to investigate the Stark effect, the Zeeman effect, fine structure, and hyperfine structure, in the hydrogen atom. Time-dependent perturbation theory is employed to study radiative transitions in the hydrogen atom in Chapter 13. Chapter 14 illustrates the use of variational methods in quantum mechanics. Finally, Chapter 15 contains an introduction to quantum scattering theory.

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