Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory

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Summary: Heisenberg's motivation
Review: Not really for beginners in spite of appearances, this book sketches Heisenberg's path in discovering the canonical commutation rules of quantum mechanics. After trying unsuccessfully for years to quantize the helium atom via the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rules (which attempt Einstein had already explained in 1917 to be hopeless, because the classical 3-body problem is nonintegrable), Heisenberg was finally motivated by the example of relativity (where absolute time had to be abandoned) to give up the assumption that the position and momentum of a point particle are simultaneously predictable. To follow Heisenberg's reasoning the reader must first understand action-angle variables in classical mechanics. With Einstein's 1917 paper in hindsight, the three body problem representing the helium atom energy spectrum was finally approximated semi-clasically around 1990 based on a path-integral approximation to a chaotic Hamiltonian system.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but beginners beware
Review: This book is excellent--BUT you must have a very keen appreciation of what is happening with the mathematics in order to understand its intensity. If you are just beginning your study of quantum mechanics, I would not recommend this to you unless you just wanted to blur your vision. First, get your tools sharpened with introductory level books and then, maybe, try to tackle this. Its pretty rough, but if you get there it is well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but beginners beware
Review: This book is excellent--BUT you must have a very keen appreciation of what is happening with the mathematics in order to understand its intensity. If you are just beginning your study of quantum mechanics, I would not recommend this to you unless you just wanted to blur your vision. First, get your tools sharpened with introductory level books and then, maybe, try to tackle this. Its pretty rough, but if you get there it is well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A classic in quantum mechanics
Review: This book is the standard introduction to - well, to the physical principles underlying the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics. While it is dated in terms of that mathematical formalism, it has never been superseded in its analyses. Every serious student of quantum physics will encounter it, sooner or later, in the original or in paraphrases in newer monographs on quantum theory.