PHYSICS 115C
Quantum Mechanics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 115B. Time-independent perturbation theory, application to atomic spectra. Time-dependent perturbation theory. Fermi's golden rule. Scattering. Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - Professor Sudip Chakravarthy was a good lecturer, and I personally enjoyed taking this whole series with him. He does have a strong passion for the course material and an occasional sense of humor. He's patient with students and takes all questions seriously, and he's very much approachable whether in class or OH. He tended to include at least some conceptual content in previous quarter exams. For 115C, he emphasized that the quarter was focused more on applications. As always, make sure to carefully study all the homework problems as test questions are often similar to an extent. SELLING study/test materials (Spring 2018) for this course including past exams (midterm) and a cheat sheet as well as HW solutions. *************
Spring 2018 - Professor Sudip Chakravarthy was a good lecturer, and I personally enjoyed taking this whole series with him. He does have a strong passion for the course material and an occasional sense of humor. He's patient with students and takes all questions seriously, and he's very much approachable whether in class or OH. He tended to include at least some conceptual content in previous quarter exams. For 115C, he emphasized that the quarter was focused more on applications. As always, make sure to carefully study all the homework problems as test questions are often similar to an extent. SELLING study/test materials (Spring 2018) for this course including past exams (midterm) and a cheat sheet as well as HW solutions. *************
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - It's a difficult class, but the professor manages to illustrate how cool the content is (most of the time). The midterm was very easy, the homework was moderately easy, and the final was brutal. I don't think the curve was super nice, I was significantly above average on both tests and my homework was >95%, but I still didn't get an A. If you supplement the course with online lectures and any pair of QM textbooks, you're going to understand the content. We covered time-independent degenerate and non-degenerate perturbation theory, the variational principle, the WKB approximation, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi's golden rule, absorption and emission of radiation, the adiabatic approximation, Berry's phase, pure and mixed states, and the EPR paradox. Basically everything from Griffith's except the chapter on scattering. The professor wanted to talk about topics of personal interest like quantum computing and superconducting qubits, but we didn't have time.
Winter 2022 - It's a difficult class, but the professor manages to illustrate how cool the content is (most of the time). The midterm was very easy, the homework was moderately easy, and the final was brutal. I don't think the curve was super nice, I was significantly above average on both tests and my homework was >95%, but I still didn't get an A. If you supplement the course with online lectures and any pair of QM textbooks, you're going to understand the content. We covered time-independent degenerate and non-degenerate perturbation theory, the variational principle, the WKB approximation, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi's golden rule, absorption and emission of radiation, the adiabatic approximation, Berry's phase, pure and mixed states, and the EPR paradox. Basically everything from Griffith's except the chapter on scattering. The professor wanted to talk about topics of personal interest like quantum computing and superconducting qubits, but we didn't have time.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - This is so far the best physics instructor I have encountered here. The lecture is very clear, and the homework is very easy. I really enjoyed final paper, where I can explore a topic of my own choice. I do wish to submit homework every week instead of taking a quiz because if there is a quiz based on homework, I will finish the homework even though I don't need to submit it. The hardest part of this course is giving peer reviews of the final paper, which requires critical thinking skills, and I think this is important. With this instructor, you can learn concept with a significant mastery and negligible stress. The other advice is that the pace of the course can be faster. Since the instructor gives such great lectures, I want to learn more from him.
Spring 2024 - This is so far the best physics instructor I have encountered here. The lecture is very clear, and the homework is very easy. I really enjoyed final paper, where I can explore a topic of my own choice. I do wish to submit homework every week instead of taking a quiz because if there is a quiz based on homework, I will finish the homework even though I don't need to submit it. The hardest part of this course is giving peer reviews of the final paper, which requires critical thinking skills, and I think this is important. With this instructor, you can learn concept with a significant mastery and negligible stress. The other advice is that the pace of the course can be faster. Since the instructor gives such great lectures, I want to learn more from him.
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