Assigned work: Quantum Mechanics I, 2014

Term paper

What is a term paper?

An important part of this course is to present a term paper. This is a report on substantial reading which you have done beyond the course, with your digested thoughts on the subject, complete with a list of the original sources you have referred to. I would like your term paper to be useful to students across the world, so you will present this in the form of a page on Wikipedia.

How do I choose the subject?

The choice of the subject of the term paper has to be relevant to the course. First take a look at the course contents, and the keywords in the notes. You should not choose something which is fully covered in the notes, but it is okay to choose to explore one of these topics further.

Next, you should first take a look at Wikipedia's pages on topics of relevance to quantum mechanics, then decide whether you want to add something or improve an already existing page. You could look at Wikipedia's list of quantum physics stubs to see whether there is an unwritten page which has anything in common with the course.

Discuss with me what you want to present. Fix your topic within two weeks of the beginning of the semester.

How do I start my career as an editor of Wikipedia?

To add to Wikipedia you will have to register as an author. It will probably also help to join the group which is working on improving physics pages. Be warned that wikipedia editors are pretty ruthless with bad or random editing, so some effort has to be made to discuss points (on various talk pages) and convince them that you are doing something worthwhile.

How will my Wikipedia page be evaluated?

The Wikipedia page itself is the main object which I will evaluate. I will use the "view history" page to find out how substantial your contribution to the page is. I will also monitor the "talk" pages to see how you deal with questions and comments. The distribution of credit will be

0.10 marks for choosing your topic by yourself before the final deadline: no credits if the topic has to be assigned. This part tests your absorbed knowledge base.
0.20 marks for completing and publishing a plan of action on time: this plan should be first discussed with me, then published in your wikiuser page, and finally published in the talk page associated with the topic. If there is already some discussion of this page in various fora, then you have to read, understand, and respond. This part tests your ability to do background reading.
0.50 marks for the final written work, including referencing. This part tests your ability to work through material on your own, and the ability to understand and explain the core ideas involved.
0.20 marks for responding to criticism including discussion on the talk pages and various fora, as well as working with other editors when they would like to modify what you write. This tests your ability to explain your understanding in more detail. No credits if there is no discussion on the talk page of your article.

List of Wikiprojects

Asheshanand Acharya: Coulomb scattering states: Topic assigned on Tuesday, 23 Sep, 2014. Asheshanand does not have a plan of action yet
Farhan Babra: Wave packets in quantum mechanics: Topic finalized on Tuesday, 23 Sep, 2014. Farhan has yet to form any plan of action.
Dibyendu Bala: Scattering matrix: Topic finalized on Wednesday, 10 Sep, 2014. Dibyendu will extend this page to include a description of the S-matrix in quantum mechanics.
Soham Bhattacharya: Neutral particle oscillations: Topic finalized on Friday, 12 Sep, 2014. Soham plans to include material on particle-antiparticle oscillations as well as flavour oscillations of neutrinos.
Sudip Chakraborty: Symmetry of diatomic molecules: Topic assigned on Monday, 15 Sep, 2014. Sudip has not yet decided on a plan
Suman Chatterjee: Magnetic Resonance: Topic finalized on Friday, 19 Sep, 2014. Suman has not yet supplied any details of the plan of how this page will be improved.
Adwait Gaikwad: Gauge transformations and Landau levels: Topic finalized on Wednesday, 24 Sep, 2014. Adwait has no plan of action yet.
Abhijit Guria: Curie-Weiss law: Topic finalized on Friday, 12 Sep, 2014. Abhijit has not yet supplied any details of the plan of how this page will be improved.
Sumeru Hazra: The translation operator: Topic finalized on Friday, 12 Sep, 2014. Sumeru will improve the page and add material on discrete (lattice) translations
Md. Sazedur Rahman Laskar: Rabi oscillations: Topic finalized on Thursday, 4 Sep, 2014. Laskar will improve the page and add new material; exact details are expected soon.
Indranil Roy: Fock states: Topic assigned on Thursday, 18 Sep, 2014. Indranil has yet to develop a plan of how he will proceed.
Arkadipta Sarkar: Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for SU(3): Topic assigned on Monday, 22 Sep, 2014. Arkadipta does not yet know how he will proceed.
Tabish Shibli: Tensor operator: Topic assigned on Tuesday, 23 Sep, 2014. Tabish has yet to give any details on how he will proceed.
Anurag Tiwari: Universality and quantum systems: Topic assigned on Monday, 15 Sep, 2014. Anurag has yet to give exact details on how he will proceed.

List of Assignments

First assignment: due before September 2, 2014: Write out a coherent account of how the two-slit experiment tells us what the structure of quantum mechanics is. The article should be written on a single A4 size sheet of paper. You can use both sides of the sheet. Please hand your assignment in to Ronak.