Seventh Lecture Advanced Quantum Mechanics
has taken place today. It was difficult material-wise. I am not satisfied with the way Kardar presents the transition between his particle book and his field book. In fact, I think that the aspects worth mentioned right at the transition are certaintly present in the book: but scattered in pieces over at least four chapters. So I wanted to proceed differently, and brought these pieces together. The lecture is supposed to consist of philosophical part, intermezzio of Ising model, and description of methods general for all the models.
Well, I have had a terrible time problem. It looked like a first lecture I ever prepared. The philosophical part was told in more or less normal tempo. Yet I have to speed up already at Ising model and begun to skip some details. As to the methods part, I could only do mean field: I’d need 15-20 minutes more to finish the part. Terrible. I’ve spent so much time to prepare the lecture, was anxious about the presentation so I worked till 2 a.m. today. The result was clearly below the expectations.
There must be a way to present the stuff the way planned. I swear that next year I’ll practice the lecture again with timer in hand. And will go to bed well before 2 a.m.
