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> For example, I've had experts in quantum field theory -- people who've spent years calculating path integrals of mind-boggling complexity -- ask me to explain the Bell inequality to them.

My favourite quantum mechanics textbook is Griffiths: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. It is popular as a textbook for the first quantum mechanics course, which is typically in the second or third year of a physics curriculum. It has sections on EPR paradox and Bell's Theorem. First edition was published in 1994.



The cat book again! It seems everyone recommends Griffiths. I finally gave in and my copy should be arriving in a couple weeks.

I've looked through the Feynman lectures a bit, and although it's very nice for a free resource, it doesn't seem to be used very much at all in curriculums.


Feynman is not sufficient as a physics textbook.

Afaik the main games in town are Griffiths, Townsend, and Sakurai if you are a tryhard

iirc I prefer Sakurai & Townsends treatment over Griffiths but I might be misremembering

e: oh yes, i think griffiths intentionally avoids dirac notation which imo screws you later on down the line


Griffiths absolutely uses dirac notation.

Weinberg’s excellent (but not widely used!) quantum mechanics textbook does not, and being proficient in Weinberg’s text would not hinder anyone.


I think it just focuses heavily on wave mechanics and gets to dirac rather late

i like townsend because it’s like baby sakurai


Chapter 3 is Dirac formalism and its used for the remaining 9 chapters.

edit: I also like Sakurai, but I actually kind of like Weinberg’s non-dirac textbook better (I’ve only read the first edition)


So in terms of accessibility, Weinberg < Griffiths < Sakurai?


what are the challengers? there are a few twitter scientists who have written QM textbooks that haven’t made their way into university curriculum yet


sakurai & townsend are the traditional challengers, when i was taking it i didn’t really think the modern challengers were up to snuff but that might have changed




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