Seventh Lecture Advanced Quantum Mechanics
was more sucsessful than I expected. The students came in big numbers and
good mood, they were attentive and active: perhaps most have had a nice flu-less vacation. The lecture is supposed to be rather technical giving a general introduction to transitions: Fermi Golden rule, relations between emission and absorption, black-body irradiation, all that. Next lecture is supposed to provide examples, be more interesting and contain more material. This is why in the beginning I make a proposal: let’s go a bit faster, so that in the end we can eventually start with the material of eighth lecture. Not only the proposal was accepted: we really managed to do this.
There was a nice discussion around Fermi Golden Rule. It turned out that nobody knew the rule, or at least could not readily recall. Strange: former generations have had at least a vague notion of it. More improvements in bachelor education? Anyway, we manage to have really nice discussion, I guess I could bring the message about the rule, that is in odds with pure quantum mechanics but is needed to make a bridge to real world.
Another interesting discussion concerned the material of the eitht lecture.Thin emission lines, thin absorption lines: They manifest atoms. We know that our Sun consists of atoms: why its emission spectrum is continuous? Well, several years of studying physics does not automatically provide the answer, but we have manage to find one.
I enjoyed both the lecture and the audience.
