"First Steps in Quantum Mechanics" is a workbook that I wrote for a graduate seminar in the philosophy of quantum mechanics that I taught when I was a post-doc in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario in the early 1990s. Ideally, it can be used by a small group of enthusiastic and determined students with some mathematical background who are willing to work through the exercises on the board together. I have since done some light revisions, but of course it needs to be brought up to date (and may someday, if the God of Deadlines smiles on me). This workbook is emphatically not meant to be a complete presentation even of the basics of non-relativistic quantum mechanics; rather, the purpose is to introduce enough of the theory that it is possible for motivated students with some mathematical background to work through a rigorous proof of a version of Bell's Theorem — justly dubbed by H.P. Stapp "the most profound result of modern science." That opens the door to the professional literature on the foundations of quantum theory.
— Most recent update, November 23, 2016
firststepsinquantummechanics_feb18_08.pdf | 261 KB |