PHYS 290: Quantum

News:

• On Wednesday we will start on our second 1D TISE solution - the finite square well.
• Next week (October 12-16) we have fall break so there will be no lab and no problem set
• Lab 5 will continue after break
• Midterm I rewrite policy.
• We'll be using gradescope for probem sets. You can use the code EBR3XV to submit your solutions directly in gradescope. They are due on Gradescope by 10 AM Friday morning.

Course Info:

Lab Info:

Problem Sets (pdf):

Extras:

• More on the science of IceCube. Francis Halzen won the 2026 physics Nobel Prize for this observatory.
• A quick, two page Dirac notation intro.
• Plot from the C60 interference experiment of Arndt et al, reference 35 in this paper: Am J Phys 71 (2003) 324.
• The front cover
• Data from the He interference experiments: case 1 case 2 (pdf) time development of interference pattern (pdf)
• What was the problem on the polarization in the sky? Honeybees (and other insects) use this for navigation. This paper reports on an experiment to see how bees navigate using polarization and communicate directions (!)
• The PhET photoelectric effect webpage. (PhET's are nifty online physics simulations hosted by UC Boulder.)
• The moment of code in class on Monday September 7: example code for plotting (py) and example code for gathering data (py).
• The visible portion of the electromagnetic specctrum with wavelengths (pdf).
• Animation codes for the one, two, and three slit intereference patterns. Thanks to Brian Collett for these!
• On intsalling python (Thanks to Megan!)
• Plots from the Aspect et al single photon interference experiment.
• A webpage for python play.
• Single and double slit intensity plots (pdf).
• You can view Feynman's Messenger lecture with transcript (filmed by the BBC)! The full set of six lectures are available from CalTech.

Copenhagen Project Resources:

• A re-formated version of the Peierls-Frisch memorandum.
• Bernstein's article [Am. J. Phys. 79 (2011) 440] on the memorandum.
• Serber's Los Alamos primer.
• More on the 1938 Christmas discovery of Meitner and Frisch. Frisch visited his aunt Lise Meitner who had fled Nazi Germany and was in exile in Sweden.
• The PhET fission demo
• Snippets of the Farm Hall transcripts hosted by AIP. The transcripts are available in ``Operation Epsilon: the Farm Hall transcripts" (Burke Q141.O556 1993)
• On YouTube you can see a Kennedy Center performance of Copenhagen and a 2002 PBS film adaptation. Thanks to Syd for these links!

Last modified 12 October 2026