An Introduction to Quantum Mechanics ... for those who dwell in the macroscopic world

TL;DR

This paper provides an accessible introduction to quantum mechanics, focusing on classical textbooks and emphasizing a clear, phenomenological approach suitable for those unfamiliar with the formalism.

Contribution

It offers a simplified, phenomenology-oriented presentation of quantum mechanics based on classical textbooks, mainly Gasiorowicz, with minimal mathematical complexity.

Findings

Highlights the pedagogical value of Gasiorowicz (1974) for teaching quantum mechanics.

Emphasizes a phenomenological approach over formal mathematical methods.

Uses one-dimensional systems for clarity and simplicity.

Abstract

There is a huge number of excellent and comprehensive textbooks on quantum mechanics. They mainly differ for the approach, more or less oriented to the formalism rather than to the phenomenology, as well as for the topics covered. These lectures have been based mainly on the classical textbook by Gasiorowicz (1974). I must confess that the main reason for my choice of Gasiorowicz (1974) is affective, as it was the textbook where I first learned the basic principles of quantum mechanics. Beyond my personal taste, I now recognize that Gasiorowicz (1974) is still a very good textbook on quantum mechanics, with a rigorous theoretical approach accompanied by a wide collection of applications. If the textbook by Gasiorowicz was my main basis, I have taken much also from other textbooks such as Phillips (2003), as well as from the excellent classical textbook by Dirac (1981). In order to avoid complications in the mathematics and in the notation, the topic is presented in these notes with reference to one-dimensional systems, with just a few marginal extensions to the three-dimensional formulation.