Physics G6037 Professor Christ

due 11/15/2013
Problem Set #9
Corrections/improvements made to problems 28 and 30
28. A beam of electrons enters the Stern-Gerlach style apparatus shown
below in region A and exits in region C, moving from left to right.
Magnets 1 and 2 produce inhomogenous magnetic elds which point in
the z-direction and vary with z. They divide the beam into two parts
as shown. The paths of electrons with s
z
= + h/2 are shifted upward
while those with s
z
= h/2 are shifted downward. Magnets 3 and 4
provide exactly the opposite elds and return the two s
z
= h/2 com-
ponents together so that the aparatus has ultimately identical aects
on both the s
z
= h/2 states.
(a) If the incoming electrons are prepared in the state with s
x
= + h/2
what is the probability that a given electron will be found on the
upper path in the gure? In the lower path?
(b) An additional homogeneous magnetic eld in a xed direction is
introduced in region B which aects only electrons moving on
the upper path in that region. The additional time-integrated
magnetic eld seen by those electrons is

I
B
. If

I
B
points in the z
direction, nd the polarization of the electrons seen in region C
as a function of I
B
. (Be sure to combine the contributions from
both the upper and lower paths.)
(c) For a situation identical to (b) but with

I
B
oriented in the y-
direction, what is the probability of nding a given electron in
region C? (Note the slit prevents electrons that are not deected
downward by magnets 3 and 4 from reaching region C.)
(d) For the arrangement in (c), what will be the polarization of those
electrons which are found in region C?
(e) Sucient photographic emulsion is placed in the lower path in
region B so that an electron passing through that lower path will
cause at least one lm grain to be exposed. Assume that the
emulsion has no eect on the electrons passing through it. Find
the average polarization measured for the electrons found in region
C for the cases (b) and (c) above.
29. Consider the Hydrogen atom as a two-particle problem which depends
on the two, 3-dimensional coordinates r
e
and r
p
, the locations of the
electron and proton.
(a) Write down the quantum mechanical Hamiltonian in terms of the
positions r
e
and r
p
and their conjugate momentum operators p
e
and p
p
.
(b) Working with the resulting time-independent Schr odinger equa-
tion in position space, change from the coordiates r
e
and r
p
to the
relative and center of mass coordinates
r = r
e
r
p
,

R =
1
m
e
+ m
p
{
m
e
r
e
+ m
p
r
p
}
and rewrite the stationary state Schr odinger equation in terms of
these variable. 6Here m
e
and m
p
are the masses of the electron
and proton.
(c) Show that the allowed energies of the hydrogen atom become:
E
n
=
m
e
e
4
2 h
2
1
n
2
1
1 +
me
mp
if the ratio of electron to proton mass, m
e
/m
p
is not neglected.
30. Return to problem 26 and express the time-dependent Schr odinger
equation is terms of the applied frequency, here called , and the Lar-
mor frequencies
0
= B
0
and
1
= B
1
at which the electron would
precess if only the original eld B
0
z, or a time-independent version of
the rotating eld B
1
, were present:
i
d
dt
|(t) =
{

0
2

3
+

1
2
(

1
cos(t)
2
sin(t)
)}
|(t).
(a) Use MATLAB (or another numerical analysis environment if you
wish) to evaluate the analytic solution you obtained when working
problem 26. You should choose time units so that
0
= 2, making
the period of Larmor precession equal to 1 in those units. Use

1
=
0
/5 and plot the expectation value for the three components
of the electrons spin as a function of time t for 0 t 5. Plot
the graph using 5,000 values for the time t separated by a time
interval t = 0.001. (Only this nal plot needs to be included
when you submit your solution.)
(b) Show that the time dependent Schrodinger equation
i h
d
dt
|(t) = H(t)|(t).
is also solved by the t 0 limit of the product
|(t) =
N1

n=0
e
iH(tn)t/h
|(0).
where N = t/t and t
n
= nt and the factors in the product
are ordered so that those at later time appear farther to the left.
With what power of t do the errors in |(t) in the above prod-
uct vanish as t 0? Can you nd a variant of this method
with smaller errors that can be evaluated with the same or less
computational cost?
(c) Use the method in part b) to obtain an alternative numerical
solution to the specic problem posed in part a).
[It may be helpful to begin with a working MATLAB program
larmor.m, posted on the course web site, which addresses simple
Larmor precession and then to modiy it to solve this homework
problem.]