Quantum Mechanics Books

Don't Panic

This a page with links to quantum mechanics books and books on related topics.

The books are usually linked to Amazon books.

The Books

1. Baym, G. 1978, Lectures On Quantum Mechanics (Reading Massachusetts: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.):
   Still very favorably reviewed by Amazon books. But it's got to be dated in some respects.

2. Cohen-Tannoudji, C., Diu, B., & Laloe, F. 2006 (but probably unrevised since the origin 1970s edition), Quantum Mechanics:
   This is one of the bibles of non-relativistic quantum mechanics textbooks. It's pretty dry and pretty heavy going. I think that there are points where Cohen-Tannoudji et al. in their attempt to be perfectly clear are actually less clear than if they'd adopted a breezier style. Also they shrug off the whole wave function collapse thing as the ``fundamental perturbation'' (p. 226) and say it's somebody else's problem. If you are going to be a quantum specialist, you have to grind your way through a book like this at some early point---and lots of other books too.

3. Eisberg, R., & Resnick, R., 1985, Quantum Physics, 2nd edition:
   1. Wiley.
   2. Amazon. Lots of reader reviews. Generally positive and some very highly and a few negative. One makes the point that it is a modern physics book with a lot of QM, not an intro quantum mechanics book.
   3. Wilson, Oklahoma State University. Liked it, but thinks it a bit dated and a bit too high a level for a modern physics course.

4. Gangopadhyaya, A., Mallow, J., & Rasinariu, C., 2011, Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics: An Introduction (Singapore: World Scientific):
   Maybe this is the style that a modern quantum textbook should have.
   1. Amazon. One very positive review.

5. Goldstein, H., Safko, J. L., & Poole, C. P., 2001, Classical Mechanics:
   A classic textbook with some significant deficiencies. I think Goldstein et al. fail to put classical mechanics in a modern context: i.e., they fail to show how you go from old and great results to what people use classical mechanics for now and how they do it---which is mostly numerically I believe. There may be some material that is extinct too. Also the 3rd edition is riddled with typos: nearly 1 per page it seems. But there is lots of good stuff two even if you only ever get through the first 3 chapters.

6. Brian Greene, 2004, The Fabric of the Cosmos:
   Not a modern physics or a quantum mechanics textbook, but a useful supplement to modern physics and quantum mechanics courses---until it inevitably dates.
   1. Random House(Vintate Books division).
   2. Amazon. 246 reviews with 4.5 star average and professional reviews are good and I think it's pretty nifty.

7. Greenstein, G., & Zajonc, A. G. 1997, The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics):
   Probably takes more than one reading and dated already.
   1. Amazon. 9 reviews mostly favorable.

8. David J. (Jeffery) Griffiths, 2005, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics:
   I agree with everyone else that this is a pretty darn good introductory book to quantum mechanics. But familiarity breeds quibbles. So I have some. I think spin could be better treated. I think the problem of wave function collapse could be elucidated a bit more. The Amazon reviewers think its pretty nifty overall.

9. D. F. Lawden, 1982, Introduction to Tensor Calculus, Relativity, and Cosmology (Dover):
   This is a not a modern physics book, but a book on relativity.

   1. Amazon. Favorably reviewed, but the formalism is considered a bit old-fashioned it seems---that goes for me too.

10. N. David Mermin, 2005, It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity:
    This seems to be the update of Mermin's older book Space and Time in Special Relativity which is an excellent popular introduction to special relativity: the necessary arguments and equations are presented with clarity and simplicity.

11. Wikibooks: Modern Physics: Maybe a good supplement.

12. Zeilinger, A. Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux):
    Anton Zeilinger (1945--) is one of the modern experts on fundamental questions in quantum mechanics. So from the horse's mouth.
    1. Amazon. Mostly positive reviews.