Download PHYS13071 Assessment 2012

Assessment item 3—Summative assignment
Due date:
8 June 2012
Weighting:
40%
ASSESSMENT
3
Objectives
This assessment item relates to the course learning outcomes as stated in Part A.
Details
You should write a properly referenced review on ONE of these topics of about 4000 words for a
target audience of physics undergraduates such as yourselves. The essay should be relevant to the
material covered in the unit PHYS 13071 Quantum Mechanics. The type of article found in
Scientific American, Physics World, Physics Today, IEEE Spectrum should be used as models.
Credit will be given for appropriate diagrams and graphs, and for the quality of English and
logical presentation of the topic. Credit is also given for the range of reference material consulted,
and for how up-to-date it is. Library books, journal articles, and web sites should all be accessed.
Schedule
Week 5
Week 13-14
8/06/2012
Essay topic finalized after discussing with the course lecturer.
20 minutes presentation on the topics. The presentation contributes 10% of the total
marks. Special arrangement on the presentation will be made to Flex students. It may
be online, telephone or pre-recording presentation.
Submission of the essay. The essay contributes 30% of the total marks.
Suggest topics for Summative Assignment
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History of Quantum Mechanics
Mathematical formalism of Quantum Mechanics
Quantum Harmonic Oscillators
Atoms in Magnetic Field
Quantum Entanglement
Quantum Computing
1. Early history of Quantum Theory
Quantum theory is one of the cornerstones of modern physics. Quantum theory was developed
in the 1920s by Neils Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac and others.
The review essay will focus on the historical development of quantum theory.
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Crisis of classical physics
Early quantum theory
Bohr and Copenhagen institute
Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics
Schrodinger’s wave mechanics
Solvay conferences and the Bohr-Einstein debate
2. Mathematical formalism of Quantum Mechanics
Mathematics formalism of quantum mechanics put quantum theory into a strong logical
foundation.
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Postulates of quantum mechanics
Dirac formalism
Two states system (Polarization of photon / Spin of electron)
Measurement problem in quantum mechanics
3. Quantum Harmonic Oscillator
The quantum mechanical treatment of harmonic oscillator is not just a text book exercise, it
provides an important method for the further development in the quantisation of the
electromagnetic field and the understanding of other interesting effects.
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Review of classical oscillator
Schrödinger equation of quantum harmonic oscillator
Operator method
Diatomic molecules
Zero point energy and Casimir effect
4. Atoms in Magnetic field
This essay reviews the various effects of the magnetic field on the energy levels of an atom.
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Review of angular momentum in quantum theory
Electron spin resonance
The Zeeman effect
Paschen-Back effect
5. Quantum Entanglement
The foundation of quantum theory has been subjected to great concerns since its early
development in the 1920s. The difficulty of quantum theory was captured by the EPR problem
which was formulated by Einstein and his collaborators. The EPR problem raises the “nonlocality” nature of quantum particles and its seeming contradiction to the theory of relativity.
The “non-locality” of quantum particles was demonstrated experimentally in the 1970s. Since
then the interest in the fundamentals of quantum theory have been revived. The “non-locality”
of quantum particles or the “quantum entanglement” has found its application in “quantum
cryptography” – the exchanging of messages in a coded form that makes them indecipherable
to anyone else.
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The debate on the foundation of quantum theory and the EPR problem
The Bell inequality
Review on the cryptography
Quantum entanglement and quantum cryptography
The latest experiments on quantum crystography
6. Quantum Computing
Although the foundation of quantum theory was developed in the 1920s, the last decade has
seen years of great advances in quantum technology, especially in nanotechnology. According
to the “Moore’s Law”, the number of transistors on computer chips, and hence their
computational speed and memory capacity, doubles every eighteen months. If the “Moore’s
Law” holds, in a very short time, the dimensions of features in a silicon chip will have shrunk
to such a size that the properties of individual atoms and electrons will play a determining
role. One possible new technology is “quantum computing”. In this review essay, you are
expected to give a review of the recent of developments in “quantum computing”. The essay
will include the following
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Microelectronics and the “Moore’s Law”
“bit” and “qbit”
Code breaking and the “Shor algorithm”
Building a quantum computer