An "alternative" formulation of quantum mechanics that does not involve operators.
The first quantum mechanics theories developed.
Their most popular formulation has been the Schrödinger equation.
The Schrödinger equation Hamiltonian has to be a Hermitian so we will have only positive energies I think: quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/12113/why-does-a-hamiltonian-have-to-be-hermitian
Bibliography:
- maths-people.anu.edu.au/~andrews/DG/ Lectures on Differential Geometry by Ben Andrews
Show up in the solution of the quantum harmonic oscillator after separation of variables leading into the time-independent Schrödinger equation, much like solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series.
I.e.: they are both:
- solutions to the time-independent Schrödinger equation for the quantum harmonic oscillator
- a complete basis of that space
www.physics.udel.edu/~jim/PHYS424_17F/Class%20Notes/Class_5.pdf by James MacDonald shows it well.
And then we can prove the ladder properties easily.
The commutator appear in the middle of this analysis.
This notation is cool as it gives the spin quantum number, which is important e.g. when talking about hyperfine structure.
But it is a bit crap that the spin is not given simply as but rather mixes up both the azimuthal quantum number and spin. What is the reason?
This notation is so confusing! People often don't manage to explain the intuition behind it, why this is an useful notation. When you see Indian university entry exam level memorization classes about this, it makes you want to cry.
The key reason why term symbols matter are Hund's rules, which allow us to predict with some accuracy which electron configurations of those states has more energy than the other.
web.chem.ucsb.edu/~devries/chem218/Term%20symbols.pdf puts it well: electron configuration notation is not specific enough, as each such notation e.g. 1s2 2s2 2p2 contains several options of spins and z angular momentum. And those affect energy.
This is why those symbols are often used when talking about energy differences: they specify more precisely which levels you are talking about.
Basically, each term symbol appears to represent a group of possible electron configurations with a given quantum angular momentum.
We first fix the energy level by saying at which orbital each electron can be (hyperfine structure is ignored). It doesn't even have to be the ground state: we can make some electrons excited at will.
The best thing to learn this is likely to draw out all the possible configurations explicitly, and then understand what is the term symbol for each possible configuration, see e.g. term symbols for carbon ground state.
It also confusing how uppercase letters S, P and D are used, when they do not refer to orbitals s, p and d, but rather to states which have the same angular momentum as individual electrons in those states.
It is also very confusing how extremelly close it looks to spectroscopic notation!
The form of the term symbol is:
Atomic Term Symbols by TMP Chem (2015)
Source. Atomic Term Symbols by T. Daniel Crawford (2016)
Source. Bibliography:
- chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Spectroscopy/Electronic_Spectroscopy/Spin-orbit_Coupling/Atomic_Term_Symbols
- chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Pacific_Union_College/Quantum_Chemistry/08%3A_Multielectron_Atoms/8.08%3A_Term_Symbols_Gives_a_Detailed_Description_of_an_Electron_Configuration The PDF origin: web.chem.ucsb.edu/~devries/chem218/Term%20symbols.pdf
- chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Inorganic_Coordination_Chemistry_(Landskron)/08%3A_Coordination_Chemistry_III_-_Electronic_Spectra/8.01%3A_Quantum_Numbers_of_Multielectron_Atoms
- physics.stackexchange.com/questions/8567/how-do-electron-configuration-microstates-map-to-term-symbols How do electron configuration microstates map to term symbols?
Allow us to determine with good approximation in a multi-electron atom which electron configuration have more energy. It is a bit like the Aufbau principle, but at a finer resolution.
Note that this is not trivial since there is no explicit solution to the Schrödinger equation for multi-electron atoms like there is for hydrogen.
For example, consider carbon which has electron configuration 1s2 2s2 2p2.
Isomers were quite confusing for early chemists, before atomic theory was widely accepted, and people where thinking mostly in terms of proportions of equations, related: Section "Isomers suggest that atoms exist".
Exist because double bonds don't rotate freely. Have different properties of course, unlike enantiomer.
Key exmaple: d and L amino acids. Enantiomers have identical physico-chemical properties. But their biological roles can be very different, because an enzyme might only be able to act on one of them.
Just like for the finite general linear group, the definition of special also works for finite fields, where 1 is the multiplicative identity!
Note that the definition of orthogonal group may not have such a clear finite analogue on the other hand.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 2. You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either OurBigBook.com or as a static website.
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.
Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally. Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension. 
- Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact