How much overlap is there between quantum chemistry and quantum physics?
Well, quantum mechanics is physics. It’s just that the tools of quantum are useful to chemists, so they use them. So let me break it down for you. Quantum is a subject in physics that permeates almost every branch of physics. Nuclear physicist, particle physicists, solid-state physicists, almost everyone in physics uses quantum (except maybe geophysicists and a few other people here and there). The quantum ideas on reality (Schrodinger’s cat and such) would either fall under cosmology or quantum information, which are two fields in physics. There is another branch, called atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO for short) which uses quantum to explore the nature of atoms and molecules (and light). Because AMO physics has been so successful at describing atoms and molecules, the chemists have become very interested in using those techniques to describe chemical reactions. In fact, the line between AMO and quantum chemistry is going to be a bit fuzzy. But the more a person works on s
