INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM MECHANICS

This book aims at a side by side treatment of fundamental applications of the Schrödinger equation on the one hand and the applications of the path integral on the other. Different from traditional texts and using a systematic perturbation method the solution of Schrödinger equations includes also those with anharmonic oscillator potentials periodic potentials screened Coulomb potentials and a typical singular potential as well as the investigation of the large order behavior of the perturbation series. On the path integral side after introduction of the basic ideas the expansion around classical configurations in Euclidean time such as instantons is considered and the method is applied in particular to anharmonic oscillator and periodic potentials. Numerous other aspects are treated on the way thus providing the reader an instructive overview over diverse quantum mechanical phenomena e.g. many other potentials Green's functions comparison with WKB calculation of lifetimes and sojourn times derivation of generating functions the Coulomb problem in various coordinates etc. All calculations are given in detail so that the reader can follow every step.