Instructor: Prof. Seung-Sup Lee (이승섭), Department of Physics and Astronomy, SNU.
TAs: Mr. Jeonghyeok Cha (차정혁) and Mr. Kiyeon Kim (김기연), Department of Physics and Astronomy, SNU.
Class dates, time, and place: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00–12:15; Room 106, Building 56.
Course outline: Please check the course outline (updated on Mar. 08, 2026) for the details. Please check the course outline regularly, since it will be updated from time to time; we will also announce critical changes via eTL.
Textbook: Jun John Sakurai and Jim Napolitano, Modern Quantum Mechanics (3rd Ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020) (ISBN: 978-1-108-47322-4). When we refer to sections, equations, figures, problems, etc., without specifying the reference, they are assumed to be from this book, often abbreviated to S&N.
Exam times and place: Midterm on April 17 (Fri), 19:00–22:00; final on June 5 (Fri), 19:00–22:00; both at Room 101, Building 28.
Student Q&A forum: In this KakaoTalk chat (link), students can ask questions, answer them, and discuss any topic. You can join anonymously, but we recommend using your real name (a Korean name if you have one, or in the Roman alphabet if you don't). Feel free to ask a question in Korean!
The list below provides the links to lecture notes, exercises, and their solutions. The lecture notes are numbered as Lxx.y (e.g., L02.1), where xx indexes a class within the semester and y indexes a topic within the class. The exercise sets are similarly numbered as Exx, and an exercise within a set as Exx.y.
Please refer to the course outline (see above) for the details: when lecture materials will be uploaded, how to prepare and submit exercise solutions, etc.
Please report if you find any mistakes or typos. Such reports will also count towards the evaluation!
[L04.1] Direct sum, tensor product, partial trace (lecture note) (video)
1. Direct sum; 2. Tensor product; 3. Partial trace
[L04.2] Singular value decomposition and Schmidt decomposition (lecture note) (video)
[L04.3] Entanglement and Bell inequalities (lecture note) (video)
1. Bipartite entanglement, entanglement entropy; 2. CHSH inequality
[E04] (exercise set)
Deadline: Mar. 18 (We), 23:59
[L03.1] Baker–Hausdorff lemma and Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula (lecture note) (video)
1. BH lemma with its proof; 2. BCH formula with its proof
[L03.2] Density operator (lecture note) (video)
1. Density operator; 2. Quantum statistical mechanics
[E03] (exercise set)
Deadline: Mar. 16 (Mo), 23:59
[L02.1] Unitary transformation (lecture note) (video)
1. Change of basis; 2. Diagonalization; 3. Analytic functions of operators; 4. Unitary as the exponential of a Hermitian; 5. Trace
[L02.2] Position and momentum (lecture note) (video)
1. Translation operator; 2. Momentum operator as a generator of translation
[E02] (exercise set)
Deadline: Mar. 11 (We), 23:59
[L01.1] Dirac's bra-ket notation (lecture note; revised on Mar. 3) (video)
1. Kets, bras, and operators in the Hilbert space; 2. Matrix representations; 3. Example: spin-1/2
[L01.2] Measurements and uncertainty relations (lecture note) (video)
1. Measurements, compatible (commuting) observables; 2. Uncertainty relations: Robertson–Schrödinger relation and its proof
[E01] (exercise set)
Deadline: Mar. 09 (Mo), 23:59
Midterm exam for Spring 2023 (problems)