This new book is a beautiful exposition of quantum mechanics from a somewhat unfamiliar orientation - the time dependent perspective. The use of wave-packets and their time evolution fits in very naturally (but not completely!) with classical intuition. This makes the quantum aspects of the system much more explicit and clear. Also, it is a more modern perspective for studying time-varying Hamiltonian (and even non-Hamiltonian) systems.

However, the standard eigenvalue perspective is not fully abandoned. It is taught in parallel to the time dynamics, augmenting and enhancing understanding of various examples throughout.

The book also contains some unique and highly accessible and intuitive overviews, hard to find anywhere else at this level. Specifically, Wigner and correlation functions are introduced in a very compelling manner. Also, scattering is taught both in the standard beaten track of scattering eigenstates, but also with the more modern and computationally useful Moller operator formalism. The numerical methods chapter is a gem, suitable for a modern course on quantum mechanics, which naturally includes computer simulations of quantum dynamics.

The book fills in a long overlooked void connecting advanced undergraduates with graduate studies. More specialized topics such as solid-state physics, field theory and many-particle systems are hinted at, but correctly left open for more specialized and advanced texts.

The Applications are geared towards chemical physics, working mainly on molecular-photon interactions with ultra-short pulses. These sections nicely summarize a very broad field, and bring the reader up-to-date with some exciting and modern results. This is especially enjoyable when compared to standard textbooks on quantum mechanics, which usually bring the student up-to-date with the early fifties of the previous century...

The book contains a very nice assortment of exercises, which if gone through carefully, give confidence and a sense of understanding. Also, the extensive reference list is an added special feature.

I studied with this book, and have been using the methods in it ever since, to good effect. I recommend it without reservation.
February 16, 2007

Quantum Dynamics explained in an accessible, well written, readable book

The first part of Tannor's book presents a clear and easily accessible first pass at the basics of quantum dynamics. It takes the generic "wave packet" chapter, common to many traditional quantum physics texts, and expands it into a highly effective tool for building quantum intuition about nuclear dynamics in molecules, motivating fundamental theorems and important mathematical concepts and techniques. Part two develops the theory behind various approximate methods for treating quantum dynamics, and part three gives some excellent applications providing, for example, a well developed and approachable theoretical framework of modern pulsed laser nonlinear spectroscopy methods, and an especially nice chapter on control of chemical reactions by femtosecond pulse sequences, just to mention a couple of examples from the broad scope of applications given. The text is ideal for students of Chemistry, Physics, and engineering, accessible and challenging to both experimental and theory students alike. It is clearly written, with lots of interesting exercises. At Boston University we offer three semesters of graduate quantum mechanics: First, a semester of traditional quantum chemistry, the basics and an introduction to ab initio electronic structure methods. Next a semester introducing quantum dynamics based on Tannor's book, and finally a semester which applies these ideas to molecular spectroscopies, focusing on femtosecond nonlinear methods. Tannor's book serves as the intellectual bridge between these courses, and does so admirably. Over recent years I have taught our Quantum II class with three different drafts of the text and watched it evolve and expand into the concise, well written text that has now been published. It is a pleasure to teach from and a wonderfully clear book to read. The students in these recent classes have been very vocal with their praise for Tannor's book.
February 13, 2007

A second course in quantum mechanics

The idea behind David Tannor's book is simple - instead of going the traditional route, in which one solves the eigenvalue problem of some hamiltonian and call it a day, Tannor chooses to examine the time evolution of simple quantum systems. He deals with scattering of wavepackets, bound particles (e.g. particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, etc ... ) and illustrates the features of quantum theory through such examples. It makes you wonder why no other book does the same - after all, the really interesting part of QM is quantum dynamics, isn't it? For example: the fact that the eigenfunction of an infinite well is a sine function is all very nice, but how do particles actually behave in such a well? And so forth.
I recommend this book for anyone who has already had a first course in QM the "traditional way" and now wants to learn how exactly quantum systems behave in a time dependent way.
November 14, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Chemical Dynamics in Condensed Phases: Relaxation, Transfer, and Reactions in Condensed Molecular Systems (Oxford Graduate Texts)
by Abraham Nitzan

Techniques and Applications of Path Integration (Dover Books on Physics)
by L. S. Schulman

Quantum Dynamics with Trajectories: Introduction to Quantum Hydrodynamics (Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics)
by Robert E. Wyatt
by Corey J. Trahan

Modern Quantum Chemistry: Introduction to Advanced Electronic Structure Theory
by Attila Szabo, Neil S. Ostlund

A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations
by Daniel Fleisch