Glossary of elementary quantum mechanics

This is a glossary for the terminology often encountered in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses.

Part of a series of articles about
Quantum mechanics
${\displaystyle i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial t}}|\psi (t)\rangle ={\hat {H}}|\psi (t)\rangle }$ Schrödinger equation
Introduction Glossary History
Background Classical mechanics Old quantum theory Bra–ket notation Hamiltonian Interference
Fundamentals Complementarity Decoherence Entanglement Energy level Measurement Nonlocality Quantum number State Superposition Symmetry Tunnelling Uncertainty Wave function Collapse
Experiments Bell's inequality Davisson–Germer Double-slit Elitzur–Vaidman Franck–Hertz Leggett–Garg inequality Mach–Zehnder Popper Quantum eraser Delayed-choice Schrödinger's cat Stern–Gerlach Wheeler's delayed-choice
Formulations Overview Heisenberg Interaction Matrix Phase-space Schrödinger Sum-over-histories (path integral)
Equations Dirac Klein–Gordon Pauli Rydberg Schrödinger
Interpretations Bayesian Consistent histories Copenhagen de Broglie–Bohm Ensemble Hidden-variable Local Superdeterminism Many-worlds Objective collapse Quantum logic Relational Transactional Von Neumann–Wigner
Advanced topics Relativistic quantum mechanics Quantum field theory Quantum information science Quantum computing Quantum chaos EPR paradox Density matrix Scattering theory Quantum statistical mechanics Quantum machine learning
Scientists Aharonov Bell Bethe Blackett Bloch Bohm Bohr Born Bose de Broglie Compton Dirac Davisson Debye Ehrenfest Einstein Everett Fock Fermi Feynman Glauber Gutzwiller Heisenberg Hilbert Jordan Kramers Pauli Lamb Landau Laue Moseley Millikan Onnes Planck Rabi Raman Rydberg Schrödinger Simmons Sommerfeld von Neumann Weyl Wien Wigner Zeeman Zeilinger

Cautions:

• Different authors may have different definitions for the same term.
• The discussions are restricted to Schrödinger picture and non-relativistic quantum mechanics.
• Notation:
  • ${\displaystyle |x\rangle }$ - position eigenstate
  • ${\displaystyle |\alpha \rangle ,|\beta \rangle ,|\gamma \rangle ...}$ - wave function of the state of the system
  • ${\displaystyle \Psi }$ - total wave function of a system
  • ${\displaystyle \psi }$ - wave function of a system (maybe a particle)
  • ${\displaystyle \psi _{\alpha }(x,t)}$ - wave function of a particle in position representation, equal to ${\displaystyle \langle x|\alpha \rangle }$