The Quantum Recipe

Abstract

Introduction of the postulates of quantum mechanics: Wavefunctions, operators, observables, commutating operators, expectation values, probabilities, Heisenberg uncertainty. The postulates are then used to set up a ‘quantum recipe’, i.e. a straightforward recipe by which to write down the (nonrelativistic) quantum Hamiltonian of a system of particles. This chapter also discusses the representation of quantum operators as matrices, in reference to a set of ‘basis’ functions, and the variation principle. The idea of a particle trajectory must be abandoned in quantum mechanics. Observable properties of a particle correspond to eigenvalues of the associated quantum operators. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the Schrodinger’s cat paradox, quantum entanglement, and other oddities.