I am a first year PhD math student, and must decide: should I study Quantum Mech

Question

I am a first year PhD math student, and must decide: should I study Quantum Mechanics, although I don't have undergrad background in Physics?

Let me be more specific about my situation:

Background:
I'm a first year PhD math student with undergraduate background in Computer science. I switched from Computer Science to Math because I want to study Quantum Computing, in particular involving Quantum Mechanics.

I only learned "general physics" (for non-physicists) in my undergraduate studies, and in particular didn't learn anything about Lagrangians or Hamiltonians, and very little about Maxwell's or Schr

Explanation / Answer

Not to be rude, but how are you a math graduate student - and don't know anything about partial differential equations?

If you want to studying QC, you have to learn a good amount of physics. Its up to you whether you do that via your own study of texts, or by classes. It sounds like you're quite behind on your math, so you'll have to do the same thing there. Keep in mind, there's nothing wrong with taking a few extra years in your graduate program (in fact, thats a good way to get a job after).

Get a copy of The Feynman Lectures. That should be plenty to prep you for a graduate physics courses, if you catch up on the math.

Consider getting a copy of the textbooks for relevant graduate classes (e.g. quantum mechanics, advanced linear algebra, group theory, etc).

Most importantly, don't let a weak background stop or slow you down.

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