Page 2 - PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM MECHANICS as Applied to Chemistry and Chemical Physics

PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM MECHANICS
as Applied to Chemistry and Chemical Physics

This text presents a rigorous mathematical account of the principles of
quantum mechanics, in particular as applied to chemistry and chemical
physics. Applications are used as illustrations of the basic theory.
The ®rst two chapters serve as an introduction to quantum theory, although it
is assumed that the reader has been exposed to elementary quantum mechanics
as part of an undergraduate physical chemistry or atomic physics course.
Following a discussion of wave motion leading to Schrodinger's wave mech-
È
anics, the postulates of quantum mechanics are presented along with the
essential mathematical concepts and techniques. The postulates are rigorously
applied to the harmonic oscillator, angular momentum, the hydrogen atom, the
variation method, perturbation theory, and nuclear motion. Modern theoretical
concepts such as hermitian operators, Hilbert space, Dirac notation, and ladder
operators are introduced and used throughout.
This advanced text is appropriate for beginning graduate students in chem-
istry, chemical physics, molecular physics, and materials science.

A native of the state of New Hampshire, Donald Fitts developed an interest in
chemistry at the age of eleven. He was awarded an A.B. degree, magna cum
laude with highest honors in chemistry, in 1954 from Harvard University and a
Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 1957 from Yale University for his theoretical work
with John G. Kirkwood. After one-year appointments as a National Science
Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Uni-
versity of Amsterdam, and as a Research Fellow at Yale's Chemistry Depart-
ment, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, rising to the rank
of Professor of Chemistry.
In Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, Professor Fitts also served as Acting
Dean for one year and as Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Division
for ®fteen years. His sabbatical leaves were spent in Britain as a NATO Senior
Science Fellow at Imperial College, London, as an Academic Visitor in
Physical Chemistry, University of Oxford, and as a Visiting Fellow at Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge.
He is the author of two other books, Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics
(1962) and Vector Analysis in Chemistry (1974), and has published research
articles on the theory of optical rotation, statistical mechanical theory of
transport processes, nonequilibrium thermodynamics, molecular quantum
mechanics, theory of liquids, intermolecular forces, and surface phenomena.