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Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 19:36:49 2019 No.11108335 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>11108339 >>11108426 >>11108548 >>11109748 >>11109771 >>11109780

what are the prerequisites to studying quantum physics?
i have a degree in pure math but have never taken even a single physics class. do i need to learn the newtonian mechanics and relativity?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 19:38:30 No.11108338 Report

Quoted By: >>11108341

pure math will definitely help you out.
I recommend starting with Newtonian mechanics to get used to how physicists approach problems, try relativity out once you feel like you're ready to move on to something more esoteric, and then finally quantum physics. YMMV, though.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 19:38:39 No.11108339 Report

Quoted By: >>11108341

>>11108335
Relativity no.
Classical Newtonian physics in theory you could technically do without, but no one does and it's a pretty bad idea.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 19:39:59 No.11108341 Report

Quoted By:

>>11108338
>>11108339
thanks. i'll get a classical mechanics book and start there.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 20:25:19 No.11108426 Report

Quoted By:

>>11108335
You only need really statistics, Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics then PDEs to get started. If you’re coming from math you might have a better time desu

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 20:40:23 No.11108450 Report

Quoted By:

A solid understanding in linear algebra helps a lot. Griffiths book on quantum mechanics is a good place to start. Other books excel though where Griffiths fails.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 31 Oct 2019 21:47:41 No.11108548 Report

Quoted By:

>>11108335
From the physics point of view, you should know classical hamiltonian mechanics if you want to do quantum mechanics.
If you want to do QFT, you also need classical field theory and special relativity.

From the mathematical point of view, you need Functional Analysis and Representation Theory the most for QM and every branch of math that exists for QFT.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 01 Nov 2019 10:57:56 No.11109748 Report

Quoted By: >>11109780

>>11108335
>degree in pure math
>wants to drop down into Theoretical Physics
Why? pure math is far more interesting.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 01 Nov 2019 11:22:24 No.11109771 Report

Quoted By:

>>11108335
Yes, but it will be easy for you if you have a good grasp on differential geometry and linear algebra. I'd say Newtonian mechanics will be the hardest out of those for you, because all the nice properties of QM and relativity kinda break down there.
Personally I'd say start with relativity, then quantum mechanics. Then understand that Newtonian mechanics is a linearization of either.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 01 Nov 2019 11:33:39 No.11109780 Report

Quoted By:

>>11109748
>>degree in pure math
>>wants to drop down into Theoretical Physics
>Why? pure math is far more interesting.
Aren't those two things just the same?

>>11108335
For quantum mechanics you just need to refresh linear algebra and probability, and learn the hamiltonian formulation of newtonian mechanics. If you want to go beyond and study quantum field theory, then you would need the lagrangian formulation of newtonian mechanics, classical field theory and a little bit of theory of distributions.

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