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Here,
is the angular frequency of the classical oscillator. It is given in terms of the spring
constant k (Hooke's law) as
. The operators x and p are Hermitian.
As seen, these operators are Hermitian conjugate of each other. The Hermitian number operator
(
) becomes
(
)(
)[
We also have
[
Similarly, we obtain
In terms of the energy eigenket of N, | , and its eigenvalue, n, the eigenvalue equation reads
|
|
(
|
[
]
|
|
|
and
| and | are also eigenkets of N. The eigenvalue corresponding to
Consequently,
increases by one and the energy increases by
. On the other hand, the eigenvalue of
decreases by one and the energy decreases by
. Now, we can write
|
|
. We also have,
The constant c is determined from the normalization of | and |
|
| | |
represents the number operator, then
| |
However, c is a real positive constant. Equations (6) and (7) yield
| |
|
|
|
|
Starting with a positive integer n, this sequence terminates with n=0. This is confirmed from the
positivity of the norm of | ,
| | ( |
| )
The ground state of the harmonic oscillator (n=0) has an energy eigenvalue
Keep applying the creation operator (Eq. (8b)) to the ground state | , we get
|
|
|
( )|
( )|
+|
+|
+|
Energy Eigenfunctions:
Using Eqs. (8a) and 8(b), and the orthonormality of {| }, we express the matrix elements
2
| |
|
With
and Eq. (10), we obtain the matrix elements of the x and p operators as
| |
| |
As noticed, neither x nor p is diagonal in the N representation. This is because x and p do not
commute with N.
To get the energy eigenfunction in the position space using the operator method, we consider
the ground state
|
In the x representation, it reads
| |
| (
)|
Using the representation of the momentum operator in the position basis (Lecture 3),
| |
we obtain
| |
where
[ | |
| ]
] |
( ) +
] |
] |
) [
] |
)[
( ) +
To find an expression for the expectation values of x2 and p2, we start with
(
Similarly, we obtain
However, the expectation values of the kinetic and potential energies are expressed, respectively,
as
and
From Eq. (12) we obtain, for the ground and excited states,
For the excited states, we can show that the uncertainty becomes larger
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reference: "Modern Quantum Mechanics" Second edition. By J. J. Sakurai and Jim Napolitano, Ch. 2.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------These notes are just helping you to study the material presented in our text book that you must refer to it.
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