[neosocrates (OP)]

Hi, I'm in an advanced physics independent study, and I am writing a paper on quantum entanglement.  I Have come across a symbol which I can't identify.  It looks like this:
         
                        |a> or <a| or <a>
"a" is used as a variable by me, not the papers I'v seen it in, they usually use the Greek letter psi.
Could anyone tell me what these mean. I have an Idea, but I am not sure.  An example of a paper with them in it would be
"Calculation of the Quantum Entanglement Measure of Bipartite states, Based on Relative Entropy, Using Genetic Algorithms"
Thank you if you can Help me.
Yours Truly
NeoScorates

[gsmollin]

The capital Greek letter "psi" is usually the wave function operator in QM. You can find it under Scrodinger's equation.

[DrPhil]

is this what you mean...
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/qm/fundamental/node8.html
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/qm/fundamental/node9.html

[neosocrates (OP)]

Thanks Dr. Phil, That is exactly what I was looking for.

yours truly
Neosocrates