PHY 344 -- Computational assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to complete an in-depth study an quantum mechanics topic of interest to you. There will be no class during the week of Mar. 3-7 because of the March APS meeting. This will be a good time to work on this assignment. Each student should prepare a 20-30 minute talk about their project to share with the class. The talk should include:

1. Motivation and discription of the project
2. A discussion of the basic electrodynamic principles involved in the project
3. A discussion of the main results
4. Conclusions and outlook for additional work along these lines.

• Appendix G of your text outlines a method for numerical solution of the Schroedinger equation. You could implement this method using one of several available programing languages and use it to study the solutions of a few one-dimensional potential problems.
• Using the program graphatom or others, study the energies of several different atoms in various electron configurations.
• More suggestions available by request.