author : Bernd Thaller

Though this book stands alone, it can also be paired with the author’s book, Visual Quantum Mechanics, to form a comprehensive course in quantum mechanics. The software for the first book earned the European Academic Software Award 2000 for outstanding innovation in its field. The CD ROM accompanying this book contains a much-improved version of this award winning software and includes about 300 QuickTime movies and interactive simulations. The point-and-click interface is no more difficult than using the internet and is equally useful for self-study and classroom presentations. The visualization method displays all essential information about the quantum state in an intuitive way and will greatly enhance the reader’s understanding of quantum mechanics. The animations shift the emphasis from stationary states towards quantum dynamics and help students and researchers alike to get an intuitive feeling for quantum processes that is hard to obtain from mathematical formulas alone. In addition, 3D-Visualization software and hundreds of Mathematica notebooks and packages are provided for the reader’s own ventures into the field of quantum-mechanical visualizations. This book has a home page (http://vqm.unirgraz.at) that includes more supplementary material, additional animations and visualizations, Mathematica notebooks, and further information.