Homework 3 Solutions

AS.171.303: Quantum Mechanics I

Due: Tuesday, October 8
1. (a) From equation (3.28), we have the following representations for the rotation gen-
erators,

J
x

2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_

J
y

2
_
_
0 i 0
i 0 i
0 i 0
_
_

J
z

_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
Computing [

J
x
,

J
y
] is then simply matrix multiplication,
[

J
x
,

J
y
] =

J
x

J
y


J
y

J
x
=

2
2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
_
_
0 i 0
i 0 i
0 i 0
_
_

2
2
_
_
0 i 0
i 0 i
0 i 0
_
_
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
=
2
_
_
i 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 i
_
_
= i

J
z
So we nd the result [

J
x
,

J
y
] = i

J
z
, which is the same result we found in Home-
work 1. While this may not seem like an important result, this is a necessary
condition for these matrices to represent the generators of rotations in three-
dimensions, and should hold for any basis and any value of j.
(b) This is also simply matrix multiplication, resulting in
1

J
2
=

J
2
x
+

J
2
y
+

J
2
z
=

2
2
_
_
1 0 1
0 2 0
1 0 1
_
_
+

2
2
_
_
1 0 1
0 2 0
1 0 1
_
_
+
2
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
= 2
2
_
_
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
_
_
= 2
2

I
The fact that

J
2
is proportional to the identity matrix

I tells us that any state
written in this representation is an eigenstate of

J
2
. This may seem surprising,
but we stated at the very beginning of the problem that our particle had angular
momentum corresponding to j = 1, which automatically forces that particle to
be an eigenstate of

J
2
with eigenvalue
2
j(j + 1) = 2
2
.
(c) Since we found that

J
2
is simply proportional to

I, we immediately know all three
commutators. The reason for this is that

O

I =

I

O =

O for any operator

O, so
any commutator with

J
2
is simply
[

O,

J
2
] = [

O, 2
2

I] = 2
2
[

O,

I] = 2
2
_

I

I

O
_
= 0
2. First, lets nd the z-basis representation for

J
n
. Based on the denition given in the
problem, we nd

J
n
=

J
x
sin cos +

J
y
sin sin +

J
z
cos
=

2
__
0 sin cos
sin cos 0
_
+
_
0 i sin sin
i sin sin 0
_
+
_
cos 0
0 cos
__
=

2
_
cos sin e
i
sin e
i
cos
_
Now that we have this form, we can solve the eigenvalue equation, which takes the
form
_

J
n

I
_
[ n =
_

2
cos

2
sin e
i

2
sin e
i

2
cos

__
a

_
= 0
Just like in the previous problem set, we can solve for

by knowing that the deter-

minant of this matrix is zero,
det
_

J
n

I
_
[ n =
_

2
4
cos
2

2
4
sin
2
=
2

2
4
= 0

2
2
The reason why we only have

2
, and not the more general e
i
2
, is because we know
that the eigenvalues of this Hermitian operator must be real.
Using these eigenvalues, we can now solve for the forms of [ n. Starting with [ +n,
we nd
_

J
n

+

I
_
[ + n =

2
_
cos 1 sin e
i
sin e
i
cos 1
__
a
+
b
+
_
= 0
This turns into the two equations,
(cos 1)a
+
= sin e
i
b
+
sin e
i
a
+
= (cos + 1)b
+
While it may not look like it, these equations are actually redundant, as eigenvector
equations should be. We then have the relationship
b
+
=
sin
1 + cos
e
i
a
+
Requiring that +n[ + n = 1 gives us
[a
+
[
2
+[b
+
[
2
= [a
+
[
2
_
1 +
sin
2

(1 + cos )
2
_
= [a
+
[
2
(1 + cos )
2
+ sin
2

(1 + cos )
2
= 1
[a
+
[
2
=
(1 + cos )
2
2(1 + cos )
=
1 + cos
2
= cos
2

2
a
+
= e
i
cos

2
As in many problems in the past, the overall phase is arbitrary, and can be set to
zero. This then gives us
a
+
= cos

2
b
+
= e
i
sin
1 + cos
cos

2
= e
i
cos

2

1 cos
2

(1 + cos )
2
= e
i
cos

2
_
1 cos
1 + cos
= e
i
cos

2

sin

2
cos

2
= e
i
sin

2
The process for determining [ n is basically identical, so well go through it rather
quickly,
3
_

J
n

+

I
_
[ n =

2
_
cos + 1 sin e
i
sin e
i
cos + 1
__
a

_
= 0
b

=
sin
cos 1
e
i
a

[a

[
2
=
(cos 1)
2
(cos 1)
2
+ sin
2

=
1 cos
2
= sin
2

2
a

= sin

2
b

=
sin
cos 1
e
i
sin

2
= e
i
sin

2

1 cos
2

(1 cos )
2
= e
i
cos

2
Based on all of this, we have the nal expression,
[ + n = a
+
[ + z + b
+
[ z = cos

2
[ + z + e
i
sin

2
[ z
[ n = a

[ + z + b

[ z = sin

2
[ + z e
i
cos

2
[ z
3. (a) The expectation value of

J
z
can be found rather easily using this matrix repre-
sentation,

J
z
= [

J
z
[
=
__
1
5
_
2
5
_
2
5
_

_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1
5
_
2
5
_
2
5
_
_
_
_
_
=
1
5

The operator

J
2
z
can also be found easily by squaring the representation for

J
z
,

J
2
z
=
2
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
=
2
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
We can then calculate

J
2
z
the same way as

J
z
, nding
4

J
2
z
= [

J
2
z
[
=
__
1
5
_
2
5
_
2
5
_

2
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1
5
_
2
5
_
2
5
_
_
_
_
_
=
3
5

2
(b) Now that we have

J
z
and

J
2
z
, we can easily nd the variance
2

Jz
,

Jz
=

J
2
z

J
z

2
=
_
3
5

2
_

1
5

_
2
=
14
25

2
(c) Since we know that

J
2
= 2
2

I, we can actually calculate

J
2
for any state [,

J
2
= [

J
2
[ = [2
2

I[ = 2
2
[ = 2
2
This answer shouldnt surprise us. The expectation value

J
2
tells us the average
value we will get if we measure

J
2
for a very large number of particles all in the
same initial state [. However, we know that every measurement we do will result
in 2
2
, because we specied that our particle has angular momentum j = 1, so
the average value must also be 2
2
.
To nd
2

J
2
, we must rst calculate (

J
2
)
2
. This can also be done rather simply,
since we know that the operator (

J
2
)
2
must be
(

J
2
)
2
=
_
2
2

I
_
2
= 4
4

I
2
= 4
4

I
We then have
(

J
2
)
2
= [(

J
2
)
2
[ = [4
4

I[ = 4
4
Based on these results, we can nd the variance
2

J
2
,

J
2
= (

J
2
)
2

J
2

2
=
_
4
4
_

_
2
2
_
2
= 0
This answer should also not surprise us, because the variance is related to the
uncertainty in our measurement of

J
2
. Specically, the uncertainty is the square
root of the variance, or

J
2
. However, if every measurement of

J
2
for any state
gives 2
2
, then there is no uncertainty in our measurement. We know the value
of

J
2
for any state, since we already specied that j = 1.
5
4. (a) Well rst compute the anticommutator of each Pauli matrix with itself, which is

i
,
i
=
2
i
+
2
i
= 2
2
i

1
,
1
= 2
_
0 1
1 0
__
0 1
1 0
_
= 2
_
1 0
0 1
_
= 2

I

2
,
2
= 2
_
0 i
i 0
__
0 i
i 0
_
= 2
_
1 0
0 1
_
= 2

I

3
,
3
= 2
_
1 0
0 1
__
1 0
0 1
_
= 2
_
1 0
0 1
_
= 2

I
So we see that
i
,
i
= 2

I = 2
ii

I, exactly as we expected. Now lets consider

the anticommutator of dierent Pauli matrices,

1
,
2
=
2
,
1
=
_
0 1
1 0
__
0 i
i 0
_
+
_
0 i
i 0
__
0 1
1 0
_
=
_
i 0
0 i
_
+
_
i 0
0 i
_
= 0

2
,
3
=
3
,
2
=
_
0 i
i 0
__
1 0
0 1
_
+
_
1 0
0 1
__
0 i
i 0
_
=
_
0 i
i 0
_
+
_
0 i
i 0
_
= 0

3
,
1
=
1
,
3
=
_
1 0
0 1
__
0 1
1 0
_
+
_
0 1
1 0
__
1 0
0 1
_
=
_
0 1
1 0
_
+
_
0 1
1 0
_
= 0
We then see that
i
,
j
=
j
,
i
= 0 (for i ,= j). We then have the full
relationship,
i
,
j
= 2
ij

I.
(b) The cross product of two vectors yields a new vector, with a form given by
=

k

1

2

3

1

2

3

= [
2
,
3
] [
1
,
3
] + [
1
,
2
]

k
= 2i
1
+ 2i
2
+ 2i
3

k = 2i
where we obtained the commutation relations from
[
i
,
j
] =
_
2

J
i
,
2

J
j
_
=
4

2
[

J
i
,

J
j
]
6
(c) There is a vector identity which tells us that, for any four vectors a,

b, c, and

d,
_
a

b
_

_
c

d
_
=
_
a c
__

b

d
_

_
a

d
__

b c
_
This then tells us that, for any two vectors a and

b,
_

_

_
a

b
_
=
_
a
__

b
_

b
__
a
_
Lets look at the very last term in this equation. We can reverse the order of
this term, but we need to be careful to take into commutation relations for the
terms (the vectors a and

b are just numbers, so they commute with everything).
To make this more evident, we can rewrite the dot products as sums,
_

b
__
a
_
=
_

i

i
b
i
__

j

j
a
j
_
=

j

i

j
a
j
b
i
=

j
_

i
,
j

j

i
_
a
j
b
i
=

j
_
2
ij

I
j

i
_
a
j
b
i
= 2

I
_
a

b
_

_
a
__

b
_
We can then plug this into the expression above, obtaining
_

_

_
a

b
_
=
_
a
__

b
_
2

I
_
a

b
_
+
_
a
__

b
_
= 2
_
a
__

b
_
2

I
_
a

b
_
Rearranging the equation, and using our result to part (b), we nd
_
a
__

b
_
=
1
2
_

_

_
a

b
_
+

I
_
a

b
_
= i
_
a

b
_
+

I
_
a

b
_
5. (a) First, lets nd the raising operator

J
+z
. Based on the denition given in the
problem statement, we have

J
+z
=

J
x
+ i

J
y
=

2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
+ i

2
_
_
0 i 0
i 0 i
0 i 0
_
_
=

2
_
_
0 1 0
0 0 1
0 0 0
_
_
Similarly, for the lowering operator

J
z
, we nd
7

J
z
=

J
x
i

J
y
=

2
_
_
0 0 0
1 0 0
0 1 0
_
_
(b) The representation of the state [j = 1, m
z
= 1 in this basis is simply
[j = 1, m
z
= 1
_
_
0
0
1
_
_
Acting with

J
z
then gives

J
+z
[j = 1, m
z
= 1 =

2
_
_
0 1 0
0 0 1
0 0 0
_
_
_
_
0
0
1
_
_
=

2
_
_
0
1
0
_
_

J
z
[j = 1, m
z
= 1 =

2
_
_
0 0 0
1 0 0
0 1 0
_
_
_
_
0
0
1
_
_
=
_
_
0
0
0
_
_
We therefore see that the raising operator

J
+z
turns the state [j = 1, m
z
= 1
into the state [j = 1, m
z
= 0, multiplied an overall factor of

2, and the
lowering operator

J
z
simply returns 0 (or annihilates the state).
(c) We can nd the representations of

J
x
the same way that we found

J
z
. Starting
with the raising operator

J
+x
, we nd

J
+x
=

J
y
+ i

J
z
=

2
_
_
0 i 0
i 0 i
0 i 0
_
_
+ i
_
_
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
_
_
= i

2
_
_

2 1 0
1 0 1
0 1

2
_
_
Similarly, for the lowering operator

J
x
we nd

J
x
=

J
y
i

J
z
= i

2
_
_

2 1 0
1 0 1
0 1

2
_
_
(d) Since [j = 1, m
x
= 1 should be an eigenstate of

J
x
with eigenvalue , we
should simply nd

J
x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 = [j = 1, m
x
= 1. Lets check this
with our representation,
8

J
x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 =

2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
_
_
1
2

2
1
2
_
_
=
_
_
1
2

2
1
2
_
_
So far things look good. Now we also know that the lowering operator

J
x
should
annihilate the state [j = 1, m
x
= 1, simply giving 0. Checking this, we nd

J
x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 = i

2
_
_

2 1 0
1 0 1
0 1

2
_
_
_
_
1
2

2
1
2
_
_
=
_
_
0
0
0
_
_
Both checks are satised, so our representation is ne.
(e) We know that acting with the raising operator

J
+x
on the state [j = 1, m
x
= 1
should give us something proportional to the state [j = 1, m
x
= 0. So to start
we should just calculate

J
+x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 = i

2
_
_

2 1 0
1 0 1
0 1

2
_
_
_
_
1
2

2
1
2
_
_
=
_
_
i
0
i
_
_
We know that the state [j = 1, m
x
= 0 must be proportional to this answer. In
other words, we know that

J
+x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 = n[j = 1, m
x
= 0 =
_
_
i
0
i
_
_
where n is some unknown number that we need to calculate. All we have to do
is solve for the value of n such that the state [j = 1, m
x
= 0 is normalized to 1.
We can nd this by calculating
(n

j = 1, m
x
= 0[) (n[j = 1, m
x
= 0) = [n[
2
=
_
i 0 i
_
_
_
i
0
i
_
_
= 2
n = e
i

2
We notice that we have an arbitrary phase, which we can just set to zero, giving
us n =

2. We therefore have
[j = 1, m
x
= 0 =
1
n

J
+x
[j = 1, m
x
= 1 =
_
_
i

2
0

2
_
_
We can check this answer by acting with

J
x
, because we know that the state
[j = 1, m
x
= 0 is an eigenstate of

J
x
with eigenvalue 0. Evaluating this, we nd
9

J
x
[j = 1, m
x
= 0 =

2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
_
_
i

2
0

2
_
_
=
_
_
0
0
0
_
_
So the state we found is, in fact, an eigenstate of

J
x
with eigenvalue 0.
Next, we need to nd [j = 1, m
x
= +1. We can do this through exactly the
same process, except now we act with the raising operator

J
+x
on the state we
just found, [j = 1, m
x
= 0.

J
+x
[j = 1, m
x
= 0 = i

2
_
_

2 1 0
1 0 1
0 1

2
_
_
_
_
i

2
0

2
_
_
=
_
_

2
1

2
_
_
We then simply need to normalize the state we found, nding
(n

j = 1, m
x
= +1[) (n[j = 1, m
x
= +1) = [n[
2
=
_

2
1
1

2
_
_
_

2
1

2
_
_
= 2
n = e
i

2
Just like before, we have an overall phase which we can set to zero, giving n =

2.
We therefore have
[j = 1, m
x
= +1 =
_
_

1
2

1
2
_
_
Just to be sure, lets see if this is an eigenstate of

J
x
, with eigenvalue ,

J
x
[j = 1, m
x
= 0 =

2
_
_
0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0
_
_
_
_

1
2

1
2
_
_
=
_
_

1
2

1
2
_
_
While this process may have seemed a little long and inecient, this is a very
general way of nding representations of states in more complicated systems. We
create raising and lowering operators out of combinations of other operators, nd
the state which is annihilated by the lowering operator (the lowest possible state),
then keep acting with the raising operator until we nd the highest possible state
(which is annihilated by the raising operator).
6. We know that we can nd the matrix representation for any operator

O using the
relationship
10

O
ij
= i[

O[j
Lets start with

J
z
. We know that for j =
3
2
there are four eigenstates, corresponding to
m
z
= +
3
2
, +
1
2
,
1
2
,
3
2
. Just like in the j = 1 case, we will take the rst state to be the
one with the largest eigenvalue, [j, m
z
= [
3
2
, +
3
2
. This state will then be represented
by

3
2
, +
3
2
_

_
_
_
_
1
0
0
0
_
_
_
_
Similarly, the next state (with 1 in the second entry) corresponds to [
3
2
, +
1
2
, and so
on. To nd the rst matrix entry in the rst column for

J
z
, we then calculate
_
3
2
, +
3
2

J
z

3
2
, +
3
2
_
=
3
2

Similarly, the rst entry in the second column for

J
z
corresponds to
_
3
2
, +
3
2

J
z

3
2
, +
1
2
_
= 0
In general, for any two states [j, m
z
and [j, m

z
, we have
j, m

z
[

J
z
[j, m
z
= m
z
j, m

z
[j, m
z

which is nonzero only when m

z
= m
z
. Performing these calculations for the rest of the
matrix entries, we nd the representation

J
z

1
2

_
_
_
_
3 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 3
_
_
_
_
This form is very general. Whenever we are working in the z-basis, the matrix repre-
senting

J
z
will simply consist of the eigenvalues on the diagonal (generally in descending
order), and zero for all of the o-diagonal terms.
Next, lets nd the representations for

J

. From equations (3.59) and (3.60) of

Townsend, we know that

J
z
[j, m
z
=
_
j(j + 1) m
z
(m
z
1)[j, m
z
1
Similar to above, we then can write a general expression for the matrix entries,
11
j, m

z
[

J
z
[j, m
z
=
_
j(j + 1) m
z
(m
z
1)j, m

z
[j, m
z
1
which is nonzero only when m

z
= m
z
1. We can then calculate the full representations,

J
+z

_
_
_
_
0

3 0 0
0 0 2 0
0 0 0

3
0 0 0 0
_
_
_
_

J
z

_
_
_
_
0 0 0 0

3 0 0 0
0 2 0 0
0 0

3 0
_
_
_
_
To get from these expressions to representations of

J
x
and

J
y
, we just need to realize
that

J
x
=
1
2
_

J
+z
+

J
z
_

J
y
=
i
2
_

J
+z


J
z
_
We therefore have

J
x
=

2
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0

3 0 0
0 0 2 0
0 0 0

3
0 0 0 0
_
_
_
_
+
_
_
_
_
0 0 0 0

3 0 0 0
0 2 0 0
0 0

3 0
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
=
_
_
_
_
_
0

3
2
0 0

3
2
0 1 0
0 1 0

3
2
0 0

3
2
0
_
_
_
_
_

J
y
=
i
2
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0

3 0 0
0 0 2 0
0 0 0

3
0 0 0 0
_
_
_
_

_
_
_
_
0 0 0 0

3 0 0 0
0 2 0 0
0 0

3 0
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
=
_
_
_
_
_
0 i

3
2
0 0
i

3
2
0 i 0
0 i 0 i

3
2
0 0 i

3
2
0
_
_
_
_
_
7. Since the Hamiltonian is proportional to the operator

J
2
, any state with denite j is
an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian, and the energy can be determined solely by knowing
the value of j. We can see this by seeing the action of

H on any state [j, m
z
,

H[j, m
z
=
1
2I

J
2
[j, m
z
=
1
2I

2
j(j + 1)[j, m
z

The energy of any state is then simply equal to the eigenvalue,

12
E
j
=

2
2I
j(j + 1)
This conrms that the lowest possible energy is E = 0 and does correspond to a state
with j = 0. Since j is only allowed to be an integer, the three next lowest energies
correspond to j = 1, 2, 3 with values
E
1
=

2
I
E
2
=
3
2
I
E
3
=
6
2
I
Note that the energy is independent of the value of m
z
, since it only depends on j. That
means that there are multiple states which each have the same energy, corresponding
to states with dierent m
z
values but the same j value.
It turns out that for any given j, there are 2j + 1 dierent possible values for m
z
,
which means there are 2j +1 linearly independent eigenstates which all have the same
energy. We therefore see that there is only one possible state with the lowest energy
(m
z
= 0), but three possible states with the next lowest energy (m
z
= +1, 0, 1). For
the three energies we considered, we then have
j = 1 3 states: m
z
= +1, 0, 1
j = 2 5 states: m
z
= +2, +1, 0, 1, 2
j = 3 7 states: m
z
= +3, +2, +1, 0, 1, 2, 3
j 2j + 1 states: m
z
= +j, +(j 1), ..., (j 1), j
13