quantum eae : erkeley physics course-volume 4Crude Values of Important Physical Constants ‘The constants in this table might well be memorized so that they are always available for simple estimates. See Table A in Appendix for precise values. ‘Avogadro's number: No = 6 x 10% (mol)-* Velocity of light: = 3 x 101° cm/sec Electronic charge: e = 1.6 x 10-"* coulomb: Fine-structure constant: « = 1/137 Rest energy of electron: me? ~ 0.5 MeV Rest energy of proton: Mo? = 940 MeV Ratio of proton to electron mass: M,/m = 1800 Jonization energy of hydrogen: R., = Jute? = 13.6 eV Bohr radius in hydrogen: ay = A/a = 0.5 A = 05 x 10-*em Bohr magneton: (ett/(2me) = 5.8 x 10-* eV/gauss Nuclear radius (mass number Ay r= AM x (1,2 x 10-1 cm) Nuclear binding energy /nucleon: = 8 MeV ‘Room temperature”: k x (293°K) = (1/40) eV "Optical region": 4000 A-7000 A 3.0 eV-1.8 eV JONE ELECTRON VOLT corresponds to: Tempereture: ~ 12,000°K Frequency: = 2.4 x 10% cycles/sec Bulk energy: = 23,000 cal/mol Wave number: ~ 8000 emt Wavelength: = 12,000 A Front cover: Term scheme of neutral thallium atom. Back cover: Baryon decuplet. setrene cone requantum physics OnE, ae SLL oC Cie * °megraw-hill book company New York St. Louis San Francisco Dusseldorf Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur London Mexico Montreal New Dethi Panama Rio de Janeiro Singapore Sydney Torontoquantum physics berkeley physics course—volume 4 The preparation of this course was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Education Development Center, Incorporated. Crm 20903 4) S30 Eyvind H. Wichmann Professor of Physics University of California, Berkeley ~~ TNUIN197 1 Qwrguiau Aol +39‘QUANTUM PHYSICS Copyright © 1967, 1971 by Educatton Develop- ‘ment Cente, In. (successor by merger to Educational Sercices Incorporated). All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of “America. This book, or parts thereof, may not bbe reproduced in any form without the written ‘permission of Education Developmen Cento, Io, Newton, Massochusets. Library of Gongross Catalog Card Number 64-56016. 06861 1254567890 MWMW 79876543210Preface to the Berkeley Physics Course ‘This is 2 two-year introductory college physics course for students ‘majoring in science and engineering, The intention of the writers hhas been to present physics in so far as possible as it appears to physicists working on the forefront of their field, We have sought to make a course which would vigorously emphasize the foundations of physics, Our specific objectives were to introduce students early to the ideas of special relativity, of quantum physics, and of stati ‘ical physics, At the same time we wanted our presentation to be of an elementary character, and it was never our intention to de- velop a course limited to honors students or to students in advanced standing This course is intended for any student who has had physics in high school, A mathematics course including calculus should be taken concurrently, ‘The five vohumes of the course inchude:* T. Mechanics (Kittel, Knight, Ruderman) HL Electricity and Magnetism (Purcell) IIT, Waves (Crawford) TV. Quanturn Physics (Wichmana) V. Statistical Physics (Reif) The initial work on this couse led Alan M. Portis to devise a new lementary physics laboratory, now knowa as the Berkeley Physics Laboratory. Because the course emphasizes the principles of physics, some teachers may feel that it does not deal sufficiently ‘with experimental physics. The laboratory is rich in important ex- periments, and is designed to balance the whole course, Im recent years several new college physics courses have been planned and developed in the United States. The idea of making a ew course has come to many physicists, aware of developments in science and engineering, and of the inereasing emphasis oa science in elementary schools and in high schools. Our own course was ‘conceived in a conversation between Philip Morrison, now of the ‘OF these Vohimes 1,1, TU, and V have appeared previously. ‘The changes tn our common preface for the prewat volume relent some onganietionel chants under ‘which this vohime was prepared, »wi Preface to the Berkeley Physics Course Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and C. Kittel late in 1961. ‘We were encouraged by John Mays and his colleagues of the Na- tional Science Foundation and by Walter C, Michels, then the Chairman of the Commission on College Physics. An informal committee was formed under the Chairmanship of C. Kittel to ‘guide the course through the initial stages. The committee met first in May 1962, in Berkeley, and at that time drew np a tentative out= line, incorporating topics and attitudes which we believed should and could be taught to beginning college students of science and engineering, The membership of the committee has since under- gone some changes, and it now consists of the undersigned. In the development of the course each author has been free to choose that style and method of presentation which seemed to him appropriate to his subject. The financial support of the course development was provided by the National Science Foundation, with considemble indirect sup- port by the University of California. The funds were administered ‘by Education Development Center, Incorporated” (EDC), a non- profit organization established to administer corriculum improve- ment programs. We are particularly indebted to Gilbert Oakley, James Aldrich, and William Jones, all of EDC, for their sympathetic and vigorous support. EDC established an office in Berkeley, most recently under the very competent direction of Mrs. Lila Lowell, to assist the development of the course and the laboratory. ‘The University of California has had no offcial connection with our program, but it has aided us in important ways. For this help ‘we thank Professor Burton J. Moyer, Chairman of the Department of Physics, and the faculty and nonacademic staff of the Depart- ment. Wo are particularly grateful to those of our colleagues who have tried this course in the classroom and who, on the basis of their experience, havo offered criticism and suggestions for improve- ‘ments. Your corrections and suggestions will always be welcome. Frank 8. Crawford, J. Charles Kittel Walter D. Knight ‘Alan M. Portis Frederick Relf Malvin A. Ruderman Eyvind H. Wichmann A. Cat Helmholz Edward M, Purcell } Chairmen * Rormeriy Educational Services IncorporatedPreface to Volume IV This volumne of the Berkeley Physics Course is devoted to Quantum Physics. It is an introductory book, intended for the student whose background in physies corresponds to a fair fraction of the material in the preceding volumes of the series. My ideal reader-leamer is thus a student of science or engineering in his sophomore year. To postpone the study of all aspects of quantum phenomena beyond the sophomore level does not seem reasonable and fair today in view of the developments in physies during the last fifty years. A ‘well-balanced introductory course should certainly refleet some of these developments. Tdo not believe that the study of quantum physics is intrinsically more difficult than the study of any other branch of physics. In every domain of physics we encounter phenomena which we feel are simple and transparent, as well as phenomena which are very dificult to account for in a quantitative fashion. Tt is true, of course, that all quantum phenomena were at one time regarded as highly mysterious and perplexing, In the period during which the field was first explored, physicists experienced very real psycholog- Jeal difficulties which derived partly from understandable prejudices in favor of the classical view of the world, and partly from the frag mentary nature of the experimental picture. There is, however, no reason why these same difficulties have to be re-created for the beginning smdent of today. It is now known with certainty that the classical description is only approximately correct, and there is ‘now available an enormous body of experimental results which sup- port and illuminate various aspects of present theoretical ideas. T firmly believe that among the known facts one can find topics for discussion which are clear-cut and simple enough to be dealt with fn an elementary manner, but which at the same time illuminate important ideas and principles. Idoubt very much that the student ‘who is guided to think about a well-chosen sequence of simple but significant physical facts will feel that quantum phenomena are smore raysterions than, say, the phenomenon of universal gravitation, My purpose in this book is to present characteristic examples of ‘quantun phenomena, to acquaint the reader with typical orders of vifvidi Preface to Volume IV magnitude of physical parameters in microphysics, and to introduce hhim to quantun:-mechanical thinking. I have triod to include among my topics for diseussion, phenomena and issues which are of particular importance for the understanding of physics. At the same time I have tried to keep the discussion as elementary as pos- sible. Ihave selected my topics from the various domains of micro- physics, but Lhave made no attempt to present a detailed systematic account of any of these domains. Such accounts should, in my opinion, be left for courses at the junior-senior level. ‘The requirements with respect to mathematical preparation are modest. [assume that the reader has hada course in calculus, ior cluding a first introduction to ordinary differential equations and some vector analysis, In order to prevent a shift of attention from ‘the physical issues to technical mathematical questions, 1 have tried to avoid topics which at this stage might appear mathematicslly Aiffcalt. Topics which call for some knowledge of the properties ‘of special functions, oF of the method of separation of variables in the theory of partial differential equations, are not discussed at all, With regard to algebra I have concluded, with some regrets, that T should not assume familiarity with matrix theory, and I have there- fore avoided topics for which matrix theory is the natural mathe- matical tool I do not by any means believe that the fulfillment of the general ‘ims of this part of the course demands that ail the material in this ‘book be taught in class. On the contrary I wanted to leave the in- structor considerable latitude in the selection of topics for discus- sion. To sid the instructor in the planning of his course I discuss the specific aims of the various chapters in the teaching notes following this preface, and I try to outline what might be regarded as a min- fmum program. I feel there is no harm in having more material available for reading than is actually taught in class, as there will always be some students who will want to read beyond the lectures. Eyvind H, Wichmann ctor, 1067 Berkely, CaliforniaAcknowledgments Lam greatly indebted to the other members of the Berkeley Physics Course Committee for their continual help and encouragement during the past few years. I wish to thank in particular Professors ©, Kittel, A. M, Portis and A. C. Helmholz for their many sugges- tions for improvements and for their constructive criticism. Very many of my colleagues in the Department of Physics at Berkeley have helped me at one time or another, and I here want to expross my gratitude to all of them. T am particularly grateful to Professors 8, P. Davis, W. B. Fretter, W. D. Knight, L. B. Loeb, J. H. Reynolds, A. H. Rosenfeld, E. G. Segré, and C. H. Townes, and to Dr. W. Hines for providing me with photographs, and for their comments on my manuseript. This book has been developed from earlier drafts used in teaching this pert of the course in Berkeley and elsewhere. The earliest ver- sion was used by myself when I teught a small group of students in Berkeley during the spring term of 1964. I wish to thank these students for their interest and for the very many helpful comments and suggestions which they made. Later drafts have beon subse- ‘quently used as texts in the same course by Professors K. Dransfeld, F, §. Crawford, L. T. Kerth, and A. C. Helmholz, 1 thank these colleagues of mine for sharing with me their experiences in teaching. this course. ‘My manuscripts have been typed by Mrs. Lila Lowell, and I wish to thank her for her infinite patience and her careful work. ‘The manuscript has been critically read and checked for errars by Dr. J. D, Finley and Dr. L. J. Landau, and I am greatly indebted to ihem for their many useful comments. I also wish to thank Dr. J. Crichton, who similarly read the manuscript for the preliminary ‘dition. Lam indebted to my wife, Marianne Wichmann, for illuminating my serious discussion of some topics with a few drawings of a not entirely serious character. All the other drawings were prepared in their final form by Mr, Felix Cooper, and it is a pleasure to thank him for his careful work.Notes for Teaching and Study ‘The material is presented in nine chapters. Each chapter is divided into many short, consecutively numbered sections, each corre- sponding roughly to one idea or one step in the train of thought. Equations, figures, and tables within the text are numbered by the ‘mumbers of the sections within which they occur or to which they refer, Specific references to particular topics in the text are given in footnotes. General references are given at the end of the chap- ters. Tables of physical data are given in the Apperidix, as well as ‘on the insides of the covers of the book." Problems for individual study are given at the end of the chapters. The serious student should do a very substantial fraction of these problems. My references are to original papers, other textbooks, and ele- mentary review articles of the kind which can be found in Sclenific American, To my student-reader I want to say the following. You will get a distorted picture of physics if you confine your reading to textbooks alone. A textbook provides a framework for orderly and systematic studies, but it cannot possibly mirror the richness and variety of the intellectual effort in physics. This book, for instance, {8 very deficient in its description of experimental procedures. To encourage you to begin to become acquainted with the literature, T have included references to papers which report on original re- search, I certainly do not expect you to read mote than a small fraction of these papers, but when you encounter a subject which you find particularly interesting I urge you to go to the library to look up the original sources. You will probably find other papers ‘which also interest you, and soon you will become a habitual reader. Do not try to read papers for which you clearly do not possess the necessary background. There are many papers, especially on ex- periments, which you can read with your present preparation, and you should select among these, Your instructor can give you further advice on where to look. The elementary review articles Note added in proof.) The completed manwerpt was submited to he publisher tthe ent of 1907, od the book accordingly des at conta refereaes to mote recent ‘work Ik may be sated, however, that nothing bas happened inthe meantime which ‘would sgicocty affect tho contents of his book codsi. Notes for Teaching and Study in the Sclentific American, which require very little preparation for reading, also can be very useful at this stage. There you can leam about current experiments and current topics of interest. ‘The question of units is not an issue tn this book. The instructor ‘can use the cgs system or the MKS system according to his pref erence. (The only place where it makes any difference is in the ex- pression for the Bne-structure constant.) Constants are presented fn both systems of units. Experimental results are presented in the practical system, In the theoretical discussion I frequently write the equations in a dimensionless form in which the macroscopic ‘units do not appear at all, I wish to comment nest on the contents of each chapter, to ex plain my intentions, and to indicate how cuts can be mude. Some of the material is specifically identified in the text as “Advanced Topics.” These topics are not necessarily more advanced than the ‘other topics discussed, nor are they necessarily more dificult. They represent, however, a digression from the main line of presentation, and they can therefore safely be omitted without making the rest of the book incomprehensible. Chapter 1 is a general introduction, The scope of quantum physics is discussed, and some aspects of the history of quantum physics are commented upon, The most important message is, perhaps, that quantum physics is relevant for all of physies, and not merely concemed with “microscopic” phenomena. In a minimum program most of Chapter 1 might well be left as a reading assign ‘ment, and the instructor might restrict his lecture discussion to the ‘material contained in Sections 27-52, which are concerned with the entry of Planck's constant into the world of physics, The problems at the end of the chapter require no particular preparation and all ‘can be assigned within the minimum program. ‘Chapter 2 is concerned with magnitudes of physical quantities in ricrophysies. The aim is to familiarize the student with these mag- nitudes, to discover “natural” combinations of physical constants, ‘and to show the student how one makes simple estimates based on simple models. I regard these aims as very important, and the ‘chapter, with the exercises at the end, is worth careful attention. In a minimum program Sections 47-57 can be omitted. Chapter 3 is concemed with energy levels, but not with the theo- retical explanation of the occurrence of levels. This explanation ‘comes later, in Chapter 8. The reason for this somewhat peculiar order of presentation is that I wanted to place all topics requiring some knowledge of differential equations as late as possible in the ook. Depending on the students’ preparation this order might be changed. In Chapter 3 I wanted to give realistic examples of level