General Information

What will you learn in Introduction to Quantum Mechanics?

By the end of the course, and upon satisfactory completion of all HW assignments, class activities and exams, the students will have an elementary understanding of Quantum Mechanics and, more importantly, its interpretation.

Textbook Information

John S. Townsend, A modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics (second edition), University Science Books; 2nd edition (February 24, 2012)

Cover Textbook

How to use this site?

This site was originally written as a companion to a course Vincent Meunier delivered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Spring 2021 and Spring 2022. It is designed to provide a full experience of the course and it is possible for motivated students to learn the material based solely on material provided here. Here is the suggested use of the site:

  1. First watch the youtube video for a given chapter (link embedded on each page)

  2. Read the “key learning points” and go over the summary

  3. Test your knowledge using the provided multiple-choice questions

  4. Move on to the next chapter

About the Instructor

Your instructor is Prof. Vincent Meunier, P.B. Breneman Chair and Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at The Pennsylvania State University. Meunier has taught this course every Spring semester since 2015. He also offers another course under the same format, on Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics.

Meunier head-shot

Vincent Meunier is a Belgian/American condensed matter and materials physicist known for his theoretical and computational research on electronic, optoelectronic, and structural properties of low-dimensional materials. Among his contributions are the quantum mechanical description of processes responsible for scanning tunneling image formation in low-dimensional materials, the development of a microscopic theory of nanocapacitors, and contributions to the theory of electronic transport and ultra-low frequency vibrational modes in van der Waals heterostructures.