Basics of quantum mechanics

Abstract

Before we can start with the quantum mechanical approach to thermodynamics we have to introduce some fundamental terms and definitions of standard quantum mechanics for later reference. This chapter should introduce the reader only to some indispensable concepts of quantum mechanics necessary for the text at hand, but is far from being a complete overview of this subject. For a complete introduction we refer to standard textbooks [2-7]. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.