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1
Quantum Mechanics I
The Fundamentals

S. Rajasekar
R. Velusamy
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

Version Date: 20141103

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4822-6337-4 (Hardback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information stor-
age or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copy-
right.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that pro-
vides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photo-
copy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents

Preface xvii

About the Authors xxi

Chapter 1  Why Was Quantum Mechanics Developed? 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.2 BLACK BODY RADIATION 2
1.3 PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT 6
1.4 HYDROGEN SPECTRUM 10
1.5 FRANCK–HERTZ EXPERIMENT 12
1.6 STERN–GERLACH EXPERIMENT 14
1.7 CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE 15
1.8 COMPTON EFFECT 17
1.9 SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY 21
1.10 DE BROGLIE WAVES 22
1.11 PARTICLE DIFFRACTION 23
1.12 WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY 24
1.13 CONCLUDING REMARKS 27
1.14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 28
1.15 EXERCISES 29

Chapter 2  Schrödinger Equation and Wave Function 31

2.1 INTRODUCTION 31
2.2 CONSTRUCTION OF SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 32
2.3 SOLUTION OF TIME-DEPENDENT EQUATION 34
∗
2.4 PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION OF ψ ψ 35
2.5 CONDITIONS ON ALLOWED WAVE FUNCTIONS 36
2.6 BOX NORMALIZATION 38

vii
viii  Contents

2.7 CONSERVATION OF PROBABILITY 39

2.8 EXPECTATION VALUE 41
2.9 EHRENFEST’S THEOREM 45
2.10 BASIC POSTULATES 50
2.11 TIME EVOLUTION OF STATIONARY STATES 51
2.12 CONDITIONS FOR ALLOWED TRANSITIONS 52
2.13 ORTHOGONALITY OF TWO STATES 53
2.14 PHASE OF THE WAVE FUNCTION 55
2.15 CLASSICAL LIMIT OF QUANTUM MECHANICS 56
2.16 CONCLUDING REMARKS 58
2.17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
2.18 EXERCISES 60

Chapter 3  Operators, Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions 65

3.1 INTRODUCTION 65
3.2 LINEAR OPERATORS 66
3.3 COMMUTING AND NONCOMMUTING OPERATORS 69
3.4 SELF-ADJOINT AND HERMITIAN OPERATORS 73
3.5 DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS EIGENVALUES 76
3.6 MEANING OF EIGENVALUES AND EIGENFUNCTIONS 78
3.7 PARITY OPERATOR 80
3.8 ALL HERMITIAN HAMILTONIANS HAVE PARITY 83
3.9 SOME OTHER USEFUL OPERATORS 84
3.10 CONCLUDING REMARKS 85
3.11 BIBLIOGRAPHY 85
3.12 EXERCISES 87

Chapter 4  Exactly Solvable Systems I: Bound States 91

4.1 INTRODUCTION 91
4.2 CLASSICAL PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION 92
4.3 FREE PARTICLE 93
4.4 HARMONIC OSCILLATOR 94
2k
4.5 PARTICLE IN THE POTENTIAL V (x) = x , k = 1, 2, · · · 105
4.6 PARTICLE IN A BOX 107
 Contents  ix

4.7 PÖSCHL–TELLER POTENTIALS 114

4.8 QUANTUM PENDULUM 115
4.9 CRITERIA FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A BOUND STATE 117
4.10 TIME-DEPENDENT HARMONIC OSCILLATOR 120
4.11 RIGID ROTATOR 121
4.12 CONCLUDING REMARKS 126
4.13 BIBLIOGRAPHY 127
4.14 EXERCISES 129

Chapter 5  Exactly Solvable Systems II: Scattering States 135

5.1 INTRODUCTION 135
5.2 POTENTIAL BARRIER: TUNNEL EFFECT 136
5.3 FINITE SQUARE-WELL POTENTIAL 143
5.4 POTENTIAL STEP 149
5.5 LOCALLY PERIODIC POTENTIAL 153
5.6 REFLECTIONLESS POTENTIALS 159
5.7 DYNAMICAL TUNNELING 162
5.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS 162
5.9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 163
5.10 EXERCISES 164

Chapter 6  Matrix Mechanics 167

6.1 INTRODUCTION 167
6.2 LINEAR VECTOR SPACE 168
6.3 MATRIX REPRESENTATION OF OPERATORS AND
WAVE FUNCTION 170
6.4 UNITARY TRANSFORMATION 172
6.5 TENSOR PRODUCTS 174
6.6 SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION AND OTHER QUANTITIES
IN MATRIX FORM 174
6.7 APPLICATION TO CERTAIN SYSTEMS 176
6.8 DIRAC’S BRA AND KET NOTATIONS 179
6.9 EXAMPLES OF BASIS IN QUANTUM THEORY 180
6.10 PROPERTIES OF KET AND BRA VECTORS 181
6.11 HILBERT SPACE 183
x  Contents

6.12 PROJECTION AND DISPLACEMENT OPERATORS 184

6.13 CONCLUDING REMARKS 187
6.14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 188
6.15 EXERCISES 189

Chapter 7  Various Pictures and Density Matrix 191

7.1 INTRODUCTION 191
7.2 SCHRÖDINGER PICTURE 191
7.3 HEISENBERG PICTURE 195
7.4 INTERACTION PICTURE 198
7.5 COMPARISON OF THREE REPRESENTATIONS 199
7.6 DENSITY MATRIX FOR A SINGLE SYSTEM 199
7.7 DENSITY MATRIX FOR AN ENSEMBLE 202
7.8 TIME EVOLUTION OF DENSITY OPERATOR 204
7.9 A SPIN-1/2 SYSTEM 205
7.10 CONCLUDING REMARKS 206
7.11 BIBLIOGRAPHY 206
7.12 EXERCISES 207

Chapter 8  Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle 209

8.1 INTRODUCTION 209
8.2 THE CLASSICAL UNCERTAINTY RELATION 210
8.3 HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY RELATION 211
8.4 IMPLICATIONS OF UNCERTAINTY RELATION 215
8.5 ILLUSTRATION OF UNCERTAINTY RELATION 217
8.6 THE MODIFIED HEISENBERG RELATION 220
8.7 CONCLUDING REMARKS 223
8.8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 224
8.9 EXERCISES 224

Chapter 9  Momentum Representation 227

9.1 INTRODUCTION 227
9.2 MOMENTUM EIGENFUNCTIONS 228
9.3 SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 230
9.4 EXPRESSIONS FOR hXi AND hpi 231
 Contents  xi

9.5 TRANSFORMATION BETWEEN MOMENTUM AND CO-

ORDINATE REPRESENTATIONS 233
9.6 OPERATORS IN MOMENTUM REPRESENTATION 234
9.7 MOMENTUM FUNCTION OF SOME SYSTEMS 235
9.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS 238
9.9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 238
9.10 EXERCISES 239

Chapter 10  Wave Packet 241

10.1 INTRODUCTION 241
10.2 PHASE AND GROUP VELOCITIES 241
10.3 WAVE PACKETS AND UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE 245
10.4 GAUSSIAN WAVE PACKET 247
10.5 WAVE PACKET REVIVAL 254
10.6 ALMOST PERIODIC WAVE PACKETS 255
10.7 CONCLUDING REMARKS 256
10.8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 257
10.9 EXERCISES 259

Chapter 11  Theory of Angular Momentum 261

11.1 INTRODUCTION 261
11.2 SCALAR WAVE FUNCTION UNDER ROTATIONS 262
11.3 ORBITAL ANGULAR MOMENTUM 266
2
11.4 EIGENPAIRS OF L AND Lz 267
2
11.5 PROPERTIES OF COMPONENTS OF L AND L 268
11.6 EIGENSPECTRA THROUGH COMMUTATION
RELATIONS 272
2
11.7 MATRIX REPRESENTATION OF L , Lz AND L± 276
11.8 WHAT IS SPIN? 278
11.9 SPIN STATES OF AN ELECTRON 283
11.10 SPIN-ORBIT COUPLING 285
11.11 ROTATIONAL TRANSFORMATION 286
11.12 ADDITION OF ANGULAR MOMENTA 288
11.13 ROTATIONAL PROPERTIES OF OPERATORS 294
11.14 TENSOR OPERATORS 295
xii  Contents

11.15 THE WIGNER–ECKART THEOREM 298

11.16 CONCLUDING REMARKS 299
11.17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 300
11.18 EXERCISES 301

Chapter 12  Hydrogen Atom 305

12.1 INTRODUCTION 305
12.2 HYDROGEN ATOM IN THREE-DIMENSION 305
12.3 HYDROGEN ATOM IN D -DIMENSION 320
12.4 FIELD PRODUCED BY A HYDROGEN ATOM 321
12.5 SYSTEM IN PARABOLIC COORDINATES 324
12.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS 327
12.7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 327
12.8 EXERCISES 328

Chapter 13  Approximation Methods I: Time-Independent

Perturbation Theory 331
13.1 INTRODUCTION 331
13.2 THEORY FOR NONDEGENERATE CASE 332
13.3 APPLICATIONS TO NONDEGENERATE LEVELS 339
13.4 THEORY FOR DEGENERATE LEVELS 342
13.5 FIRST-ORDER STARK EFFECT IN HYDROGEN 345
13.6 ALTERNATE PERTURBATION THEORIES 350
13.7 CONCLUDING REMARKS 353
13.8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 353
13.9 EXERCISES 354

Chapter 14  Approximation Methods II: Time-Dependent

Perturbation Theory 359
14.1 INTRODUCTION 359
14.2 TRANSITION PROBABILITY 359
14.3 CONSTANT PERTURBATION 361
14.4 HARMONIC PERTURBATION 365
14.5 ADIABATIC PERTURBATION 369
14.6 SUDDEN APPROXIMATION 371
 Contents  xiii

14.7 THE SEMICLASSICAL THEORY OF RADIATION 373

14.8 CALCULATION OF EINSTEIN COEFFICIENTS 375
14.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 376
14.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 377
14.11 EXERCISES 377

Chapter 15  Approximation Methods III: WKB and

Asymptotic Methods 381
15.1 INTRODUCTION 381
15.2 PRINCIPLE OF WKB METHOD 381
15.3 APPLICATIONS OF WKB METHOD 385
15.4 WKB QUANTIZATION WITH PERTURBATION 392
15.5 AN ASYMPTOTIC METHOD 394
15.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS 396
15.7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 396
15.8 EXERCISES 397

Chapter 16  Approximation Methods IV: Variational

Approach 399
16.1 INTRODUCTION 399
16.2 CALCULATION OF GROUND STATE ENERGY 399
16.3 TRIAL EIGENFUNCTIONS FOR EXCITED STATES 404
16.4 APPLICATION TO HYDROGEN MOLECULE 407
16.5 HYDROGEN MOLECULE ION 410
16.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS 413
16.7 EXERCISES 413

Chapter 17  Scattering Theory 415

17.1 INTRODUCTION 415
17.2 CLASSICAL SCATTERING CROSS-SECTION 417
17.3 CENTRE OF MASS AND LABORATORY
COORDINATES SYSTEMS 418
17.4 SCATTERING AMPLITUDE 422
17.5 GREEN’S FUNCTION APPROACH 424
17.6 BORN APPROXIMATION 427
xiv  Contents

17.7 PARTIAL WAVE ANALYSIS 431

17.8 SCATTERING FROM A SQUARE-WELL SYSTEM 437
17.9 PHASE-SHIFT OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL CASE 440
17.10 INELASTIC SCATTERING 441
17.11 CONCLUDING REMARKS 441
17.12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 442
17.13 EXERCISES 443

Chapter 18  Identical Particles 445

18.1 INTRODUCTION 445
18.2 PERMUTATION SYMMETRY 446
18.3 SYMMETRIC AND ANTISYMMETRIC WAVE
FUNCTIONS 449
18.4 THE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE 451
18.5 SPIN EIGENFUNCTIONS OF TWO ELECTRONS 452
18.6 EXCHANGE INTERACTION 454
18.7 EXCITED STATES OF THE HELIUM ATOM 456
18.8 COLLISIONS BETWEEN IDENTICAL PARTICLES 458
18.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 461
18.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 461
18.11 EXERCISES 461

Chapter 19  Relativistic Quantum Theory 463

19.1 INTRODUCTION 463
19.2 KLEIN–GORDON EQUATION 464
19.3 DIRAC EQUATION FOR A FREE PARTICLE 468
19.4 NEGATIVE ENERGY STATES 476
19.5 JITTERY MOTION OF A FREE PARTICLE 477
19.6 SPIN OF A DIRAC PARTICLE 480
19.7 PARTICLE IN A POTENTIAL 482
19.8 KLEIN PARADOX 483
19.9 RELATIVISTIC PARTICLE IN A BOX 487
19.10 RELATIVISTIC HYDROGEN ATOM 490
19.11 THE ELECTRON IN A FIELD 492
19.12 SPIN-ORBIT ENERGY 493
 Contents  xv

19.13 CONCLUDING REMARKS 495

19.14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 495
19.15 EXERCISES 497

Chapter 20  Mysteries in Quantum Mechanics 499

20.1 INTRODUCTION 499
20.2 THE COLLAPSE OF THE WAVE FUNCTION 500
20.3 EINSTEIN–PODOLSKY–ROSEN (EPR) PARADOX 501
20.4 HIDDEN VARIABLES 506
20.5 THE PARADOX OF SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT 507
20.6 BELL’S THEOREM 508
20.7 VIOLATION OF BELL’S THEOREM 510
20.8 RESOLVING EPR PARADOX 515
20.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 516
20.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 516
20.11 EXERCISES 518

Chapter 21  Numerical Methods for Quantum Mechanics 519

21.1 INTRODUCTION 519
21.2 MATRIX METHOD FOR COMPUTING STATIONARY
STATE SOLUTIONS 521
21.3 FINITE-DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN METHOD 529
21.4 TIME-DEPENDENT SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION 535
21.5 QUANTUM SCATTERING 544
21.6 ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION OF HYDROGEN ATOM 548
21.7 SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION WITH AN EXTERNAL
FIELD 551
21.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS 555
21.9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 557
21.10 EXERCISES 558

Appendix A  Calculation of Numerical Values of h and kB 561

Appendix B  A Derivation of the Factor hν/(ehν/kB T − 1) 563

xvi  Contents

Appendix C  Bose’s Derivation of Planck’s Law 565

Appendix D  Distinction Between Self-Adjoint and Hermitian

Operators 567

Appendix E  Proof of Schwarz’s Inequality 569

Appendix F  Eigenvalues of a Symmetric Tridiagonal

Matrix—QL Method 571

Appendix G  Random Number Generators for Desired

Distributions 575

Solutions to Selected Exercises 579

Index 587
Preface

Quantum mechanics is the study of the behaviour of matter and energy at the
molecular, atomic, nuclear levels and even at sub-nuclear level. This book is
intended to provide a broad introduction to fundamental and advanced topics
of quantum mechanics. Volume I is devoted to basic concepts, mathematical
formalism and application to physically important systems. Volume II covers
most of the advanced topics of current research interest in quantum mechan-
ics. Both the volumes are primarily developed as texts at the graduate level
and also as reference books. In addition to worked-out examples, numerous
collection of problems are included at the end of each chapter. Solutions are
available to confirmed instructors upon request to the publisher. Some of the
problems serve as a mode of understanding and highlighting the significances
of basic concepts while others form application of theory to various physically
important systems/problems. Developments made in recent years on various
mathematical treatments, theoretical methods, their applications and exper-
imental observations are pointed out wherever necessary and possible and
moreover they are quoted with references so that readers can refer them for
more details.
Volume I consists of 21 chapters and 7 appendices. Chapter 1 summa-
rizes the needs for the quantum theory and its early development (old quan-
tum theory). Chapters 2 and 3 provide the basic mathematical framework of
quantum mechanics. Schrödinger wave mechanics and operator formalism are
introduced in these chapters. Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the ana-
lytical solutions of bound states and scattering states respectively of certain
physically important microscopic systems. The basics of matrix mechanics,
Dirac’s notation of state vectors and Hilbert space are elucidated in chapter
6. The next chapter gives the Schrödinger, Heisenberg and interaction pic-
tures of time evolution of quantum mechanical systems. Description of time
evolution of ensembles by means of density matrix is also described. Chap-
ter 8 is concerned with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. A brief account of
wave function in momentum space and wave packet dynamics are presented
in chapters 9 and 10, respectively. Theory of angular momentum is covered in
chapter 11. Chapter 12 is devoted exclusively to the theory of hydrogen atom.
Chapters 13 through 16 are mainly concerned with approximation methods
such as time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theories, WKB
method and variational method. The elementary theory of elastic scattering
is presented in chapter 17. Identical particles are treated in chapter 18. The

xvii
xviii  Preface

next chapter presents quantum theory of relativistic particles with specific

emphasize on Klein–Gordon equation, Dirac equation and its solution for a
free particle, particle in a box (Klein paradox) and hydrogen atom. Chapter
20 examines the strange consequences of role of measurement through the
paradoxes of EPR and a thought experiment of Schrödinger. A brief sketch
of Bell’s inequality and the quantum mechanical examples violating it are
given. Considering the rapid growth of numerical techniques in solving phys-
ical problems and significances of simulation studies in describing complex
phenomena, the final chapter is devoted for a detailed description of numeri-
cal computation of bound state eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, transmission
and reflection probabilities of scattering potentials, transition probabilities of
quantum systems in the presence of external fields and electronic distribution
of atoms. Some supplementary and background materials are presented in the
appendices.
The pedagogic features volume I of the book, which are not usually found
in textbooks at this level, are the presentation of bound state solutions of quan-
tum pendulum, Pöschl–Teller potential, solutions of classical counter part of
quantum mechanical systems considered, criterion for bound state, scattering
from a locally periodic potential and reflectionless potential, modified Heisen-
berg relation, wave packet revival and and its dynamics, hydrogen atom in D-
dimension, alternate perturbation theories, an asymptotic method for slowly
varying potentials, Klein paradox, EPR paradox, Bell’s theorem and numeri-
cal methods for quantum systems.
The volume II consists of 10 chapters. Chapter 1 describes the basic ideas
of both classical and quantum field theories. Quantization of Klein–Gordon
equation and Dirac field are given. The formulation of quantum mechanics
in terms of path integrals is presented in chapter 2. Application of it to free
particle and linear harmonic oscillator are considered. In chapter 3 some il-
lustrations and interpretation of supersymmetric potentials and partners are
presented. A simple general procedure to construct all the supersymmetric
partners of a given quantum mechanical systems with bound states is de-
scribed. The method is then applied to a few interesting systems. The next
chapter is concerned with coherent and squeezed states. Construction of these
state and their characteristic properties are enumerated. Chapter 5 is devoted
to Berry’s phase, Aharonov–Bohm and Sagnac effects. Their origin, properties,
effects and experimental demonstration are presented. The features of Wigner
distribution function are elucidated in chapter 6. In a few decades time, it is
possible to realize a computer built in terms of real quantum systems that
operate in quantum mechanical regime. There is a growing interest on quan-
tum computing. Basic aspects of quantum computing is presented in chapter
7. Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm of finding whether a function is constant or not,
Grover’s search algorithm and Shor’s efficient quantum algorithm for inte-
ger factorization and evaluation of discrete logarithms are described. Chapter
8 deals with quantum cryptography. Basic principles of classical cryptogra-
phy and quantum cryptography and features of a few quantum cryptographic
 Preface  xix

systems are discussed. A brief introduction to other advanced topics such

as quantum gravity, quantum Zeno effect, quantum teleportation, quantum
games, quantum cloning, quantum diffusion and quantum chaos is presented
in chapter 9. The last chapter gives features of some of the recent technolog-
ical applications of quantum mechanics. Particularly, promising applications
of quantum mechanics in ghost imaging, detection of weak amplitude objects,
entangled two-photon microscopy, detection of small displacements, lithogra-
phy, metrology and teleportation of optical images are briefly discussed.
During the preparation of this book we have received great supports
from many colleagues, students and friends. In particular, we are grate-
ful to Prof. N. Arunachalam, Prof. K.P.N. Murthy, Prof. M. Daniel,
Dr. S. Sivakumar, Mr. S. Kanmani, Dr. V. Chinnathambi, Dr. P. Philom-
inathan, Dr. K. Murali, Dr. S.V.M. Sathyanarayana, Dr. K. Thamilmaran,
Dr.T. Arivudainambi and Dr.V.S. Nagarathinam for their suggestions and
encouragement. It is a great pleasure to thank Dr. V.M. Gandhimathi,
Dr. V. Ravichandran, Dr. S. Jeyakumari, Dr. G. Sakthivel, Dr. M. Santhiah,
Mr.R. Arun, Mr. C. Jeevarathinam, Mr. R. Jothimurugan, Ms. K. Abirami
and Ms. S. Rajamani for typesetting some of the chapters. We thank the se-
nior publishing editor Luna Han and Michael Davidson, production editor at
Taylor & Francis for various suggestions and careful editing of the manuscript,
and their team members for smooth handling of the publication process. Fi-
nally, we thank our family members for their unflinching support, cooperation
and encouragement during the course of preparation of this work.

Tiruchirapalli S. Rajasekar
May, 2014 R. Velusamy
About the Authors

Shanmuganathan Rajasekar was born in Thoothu-

kudi, Tamilnadu, India in 1962. He received his B.Sc.
and M.Sc. in Physics both from the St. Joseph’s Col-
lege, Tiruchirapalli. In 1987, he received his M.Phil.
in Physics from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi-
rapalli. He was awarded Ph.D. degree in Physics
(Nonlinear Dynamics) from Bharathidasan Univer-
sity in 1992 under the supervision of Prof.M. Laksh-
manan. He was a visiting scientist during 1992-93 at
the Materials Science Division, Indira Gandhi Cen-
tre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam and worked on
multifractals and diffusion under Prof.K.P.N. Murthy. In 1993, he joined as
a Lecturer at the Department of Physics, Manonmaniam Sundaranar Uni-
versity, Tirunelveli. In 2003, the book on Nonlinear Dynamics: Integrability,
Chaos and Patterns written by Prof.M. Lakshmanan and the author was pub-
lished by Springer. In 2005, he joined as a Professor at the School of Physics,
Bharathidasan University. With Prof.M. Daniel he edited a book on Non-
linear Dynamics published by Narosa Publishing House in 2009. His recent
research focuses on nonlinear dynamics with a special emphasize on nonlinear
resonances. He has authored or coauthored more than 80 research papers in
nonlinear dynamics.
Ramiah Velusamy was born in Srivilliputhur, Tamil-
nadu, India in the year 1952. He received his B.Sc.
degree in Physics from the Ayya Nadar Janaki Am-
mal College, Sivakasi in 1972 and M.Sc. in Physics
from the P.S.G. Arts and Science College, Coimbat-
ore in 1974. He worked as a demonstrater in the
Department of Physics in P.S.G. Arts and Science
College during 1974-77. He received M.S. Degree in
Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Tech-
nology, Chennai in the year 1981. In the same year,
he joined in the Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College
as an Assistant Professor in Physics. He was awarded M.Phil. degree in Physics
in the year 1988. He retired in the year 2010. His research topics are quantum
confined systems and wave packet dynamics.

xxi
1
Quantum Mechanics II
Advanced Topics

S. Rajasekar
R. Velusamy
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

Version Date: 20141020

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4822-6345-9 (Hardback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and
publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication
and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any
copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any
future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information stor-
age or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copy-
right.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that pro-
vides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photo-
copy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
Contents

Preface xiii
About the Authors xvii

Chapter 1  Quantum Field Theory 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.2 WHY QUANTUM FIELD THEORY? 2
1.3 WHAT IS A FIELD? 3
1.4 CLASSICAL FIELD THEORY 3
1.5 QUANTUM EQUATIONS FOR FIELDS 9
1.6 QUANTIZATION OF NONRELATIVISTIC
WAVE EQUATION 10
1.7 ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD IN VACUUM 14
1.8 INTERACTION OF CHARGED PARTICLES WITH
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD 20
1.9 SPONTANEOUS EMISSION 23
1.10 QUANTIZATION OF KLEIN–GORDON EQUATION 26
1.11 QUANTIZATION OF DIRAC FIELD 32
1.12 GAUGE FIELD THEORIES 35
1.13 CONCLUDING REMARKS 37
1.14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 37
1.15 EXERCISES 38

Chapter 2  Path Integral Formulation 41

2.1 INTRODUCTION 41
2.2 TIME EVOLUTION OF WAVE FUNCTION
AND PROPAGATOR 42
2.3 PATH INTEGRAL REPRESENTATION
OF PROPAGATOR 43

vii
viii  Contents

2.4 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PROPAGATOR

AND THE CLASSICAL ACTION 45
2.5 SCHRÖDINGER EQUATION FROM PATH
INTEGRAL FORMULATION 48
2.6 TRANSITION AMPLITUDE OF A FREE PARTICLE 50
2.7 SYSTEMS WITH QUADRATIC LAGRANGIAN 52
2.8 PATH INTEGRAL FOR HARMONIC OSCILLATOR 53
2.9 PATH INTEGRAL VERSION OF EHRENFEST’S
THEOREM 56
2.10 CONCLUDING REMARKS 57
2.11 BIBLIOGRAPHY 57
2.12 EXERCISES 58

Chapter 3  Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics 59

3.1 INTRODUCTION 59
3.2 SUPERSYMMETRIC POTENTIALS 60
3.3 RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EIGENSTATES OF
TWO SUPERSYMMETRIC HAMILTONIANS 67
3.4 HIERARCHY OF SUPERSYMMETRIC
HAMILTONIANS 71
3.5 APPLICATIONS 73
3.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS 77
3.7 BIBLIOGRAPHY 77
3.8 EXERCISES 78

Chapter 4  Coherent and Squeezed States 81

4.1 INTRODUCTION 81
4.2 THE UNCERTAINTY PRODUCT OF HARMONIC
OSCILLATOR 82
4.3 COHERENT STATES: DEFINITION AND
UNCERTAINTY PRODUCT 84
4.4 PHYSICAL MEANING OF COHERENT STATES 87
4.5 GENERATION OF COHERENT STATES 88
4.6 PROPERTIES OF COHERENT STATES 92
4.7 SQUEEZED STATES 93
4.8 DEFORMED OSCILLATORS AND NONLINEAR
COHERENT STATES 98
4.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 103
 Contents  ix

4.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 103

4.11 EXERCISES 107

Chapter 5  Berry’s Phase, Aharonov–Bohm and

Sagnac Effects 109
5.1 INTRODUCTION 109
5.2 DERIVATION OF BERRY’S PHASE 110
5.3 ORIGIN AND PROPERTIES OF BERRY’S PHASE 113
5.4 CLASSICAL ANALOGUE OF BERRY’S PHASE 115
5.5 EXAMPLES FOR BERRY’S PHASE 116
5.6 EFFECTS OF BERRY’S PHASE 117
5.7 APPLICATIONS OF BERRY’S PHASE 118
5.8 EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF BERRY’S
PHASE 120
5.9 PANCHARATNAM’S WORK 122
5.10 THE AHARONOV–BOHM EFFECT 122
5.11 SAGNAC EFFECT 128
5.12 CONCLUDING REMARKS 131
5.13 BIBLIOGRAPHY 132
5.14 EXERCISES 134

Chapter 6  Phase Space Picture and Canonical

Transformations 137
6.1 INTRODUCTION 137
6.2 SQUEEZE AND ROTATION IN PHASE SPACE 138
6.3 LINEAR CANONICAL TRANSFORMATIONS 141
6.4 WIGNER FUNCTION 142
6.5 TIME EVOLUTION OF THE WIGNER FUNCTION 147
6.6 APPLICATIONS 149
6.7 ADVANTAGES OF THE WIGNER FUNCTION 154
6.8 CONCLUDING REMARKS 155
6.9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 156
6.10 EXERCISES 159

Chapter 7  Quantum Computers 161

7.1 INTRODUCTION 161
7.2 WHAT IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER? 162
x  Contents

7.3 WHY IS A QUANTUM COMPUTER? 165

7.4 FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES 166
7.5 QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 174
7.6 FEATURES OF QUANTUM COMPUTATION 182
7.7 QUANTUM COMPUTATION THROUGH NMR 183
7.8 WHY IS MAKING A QUANTUM COMPUTER
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT? 184
7.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 184
7.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 185
7.11 EXERCISES 187

Chapter 8  Quantum Cryptography 191

8.1 INTRODUCTION 191
8.2 STANDARD CRYPTOSYSTEMS 192
8.3 QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY–BASIC PRINCIPLE 193
8.4 TYPES OF QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY 196
8.5 MULTIPARTY QUANTUM SECRET SHARING 202
8.6 APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY 205
8.7 IMPLEMENTATION AND LIMITATIONS 206
8.8 FIBER-OPTICAL QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION 206
8.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 207
8.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 208
8.11 EXERCISES 209

Chapter 9  Some Other Advanced Topics 211

9.1 INTRODUCTION 211
9.2 QUANTUM THEORY OF GRAVITY 211
9.3 QUANTUM ZENO EFFECT 217
9.4 QUANTUM TELEPORTATION 223
9.5 QUANTUM GAMES 227
9.6 QUANTUM CLONING 239
9.7 QUANTUM DIFFUSION 243
9.8 QUANTUM CHAOS 246
9.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS 252
9.10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 253
9.11 EXERCISES 260
 Contents  xi

Chapter 10  Quantum Technologies 263

10.1 INTRODUCTION 263
10.2 QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT 264
10.3 QUANTUM ENTANGLED PHOTONS 266
10.4 GHOST IMAGING 268
10.5 DETECTION OF WEAK AMPLITUDE OBJECT 270
10.6 ENTANGLED TWO-PHOTON MICROSCOPY 272
10.7 DETECTION OF SMALL DISPLACEMENTS 274
10.8 QUANTUM LITHOGRAPHY 275
10.9 QUANTUM METROLOGY 279
10.10 QUANTUM TELEPORTATION OF OPTICAL
IMAGES 282
10.11 CONCLUDING REMARKS 283
10.12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 283
10.13 EXERCISES 286

Solutions to Selected Exercises 289

Index 293
Preface

Quantum mechanics is the study of the behavior of matter and energy at the
molecular, atomic, nuclear levels and even at sub-nuclear level. This book is
intended to provide a broad introduction to fundamental and advanced topics
of quantum mechanics. Volume I is devoted to basic concepts, mathematical
formalism and application to physically important systems. Volume II covers
most of the advanced topics of current research interest in quantum mechan-
ics. Both the volumes are primarily developed as a text at the graduate level
and also as reference books. In addition to worked-out examples, numerous
collection of problems are included at the end of each chapter. Solutions are
available to confirmed instructors upon request to the publisher. Some of the
problems serve as a mode of understanding and highlighting the significances
of basic concepts while others form application of theory to various physically
important systems/problems. Developments made in recent years on various
mathematical treatments, theoretical methods, their applications and exper-
imental observations are pointed out wherever necessary and possible and
moreover they are quoted with references so that readers can refer to them
for more details.
Volume I consists of 21 chapters and 7 appendices. Chapter 1 summarizes
the needs for the quantum theory and its early development (old quantum the-
ory). Chapters 2 and 3 provide basic mathematical framework of quantum me-
chanics. Schrödinger wave mechanics and operator formalism are introduced
in these chapters. Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the analytical solutions
of bound states and scattering states respectively of certain physically impor-
tant microscopic systems. The basics of matrix mechanics, Dirac’s notation of
state vectors and Hilbert space are elucidated in chapter 6. The next chapter
gives the Schrödinger, Heisenberg and interaction pictures of time evolution
of quantum mechanical systems. Description of time evolution of ensembles
by means of density matrix is also described. Chapter 8 is concerned with
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. A brief account of wave function in mo-
mentum space and wave packet dynamics are presented in chapters 9 and 10
respectively. Theory of angular momentum is covered in chapter 11. Chapter
12 is devoted exclusively for the theory of hydrogen atom.
Chapters 13 through 16 are mainly concerned with approximation methods
such as time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theories, WKB
method and variational method. The elementary theory of elastic scattering
is presented in chapter 17. Identical particles are treated in chapter 18. The

xiii
xiv  Preface

next chapter presents quantum theory of relativistic particles with specific

emphasis on Klein–Gordon equation, Dirac equation and its solution for a
free particle, particle in a box (Klein paradox) and hydrogen atom. Chapter
20 examines the strange consequences of role of measurement through the
paradoxes of EPR and a thought experiment of Schrödinger. A brief sketch
of Bell’s inequality and the quantum mechanical examples violating it are
given. Considering the rapid growth of numerical techniques in solving phys-
ical problems and significances of simulation studies in describing complex
phenomena, the final chapter is devoted to a detailed description of numeri-
cal computation of bound state eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, transmission
and reflection probabilities of scattering potentials, transition probabilities of
quantum systems in the presence of external fields and electronic distribution
of atoms. Some supplementary and background materials are presented in the
appendices.
The pedagogic features in volume I of the book, which are not usually
found in textbooks at this level, are the presentation of bound state solutions
of quantum pendulum, Pöschl–Teller potential, solutions of classical counter
part of quantum mechanical systems considered, criterion for bound state,
scattering from a locally periodic potential and reflectionless potential, modi-
fied Heisenberg relation, wave packet revival and its dynamics, hydrogen atom
in D-dimension, alternate perturbation theories, an asymptotic method for
slowly varying potentials, Klein paradox, EPR paradox, Bell’s theorem and
numerical methods for quantum systems.
Volume II consists of 10 chapters. Chapter 1 describes the basic ideas of
both classical and quantum field theories. Quantization of Klein–Gordon equa-
tion and Dirac field are given. The formulation of quantum mechanics in terms
of path integrals is presented in chapter 2. Application of it to free particle and
linear harmonic oscillator are considered. In chapter 3 some illustrations and
interpretation of supersymmetric potentials and partners are presented. A sim-
ple general procedure to construct all the supersymmetric partners of a given
quantum mechanical systems with bound states is described. The method is
then applied to a few interesting systems. The next chapter is concerned with
coherent and squeezed states. Construction of these states and their char-
acteristic properties are enumerated. Chapter 5 is devoted to Berry’s phase,
Aharonov–Bohm and Sagnac effects. Their origin, properties, effects and ex-
perimental demonstration are presented. The features of Wigner distribution
function are elucidated in chapter 6. In a few decades time, it is possible to re-
alize a computer built in terms of real quantum systems that operate in quan-
tum mechanical regime. There is a growing interest on quantum computing.
Basic aspects of quantum computing are presented in chapter 7. Deutsch–
Jozsa algorithm of finding whether a function is constant or not, Grover’s
search algorithm and Shor’s efficient quantum algorithm for integer factor-
ization and evaluation of discrete logarithms are described. Chapter 8 deals
with quantum cryptography. Basic principles of classical cryptography and
quantum cryptography and features of a few quantum cryptographic systems
 Preface  xv

are discussed. A brief introduction to other advanced topics such as quantum

gravity, quantum Zeno effect, quantum teleportation, quantum games, quan-
tum cloning, quantum diffusion and quantum chaos is presented in chapter 9.
The last chapter gives features of some of the recent technological applica-
tions of quantum mechanics. Particularly, promising applications of quantum
mechanics in ghost imaging, detection of weak amplitude objects, entangled
two-photon microscopy, detection of small displacements, lithography, metrol-
ogy and teleportation of optical images are briefly discussed.
During the preparation of this book we have received great support
from many colleagues, students and friends. In particular, we are grate-
ful to Prof. N. Arunachalam, Prof. K.P.N. Murthy, Prof. M. Daniel,
Dr. S. Sivakumar, Mr. S. Kanmani, Dr. V. Chinnathambi, Dr. P. Philom-
inathan, Dr. K. Murali, Dr. S.V.M. Sathyanarayana, Dr. K. Thamilmaran,
Dr. T. Arivudainambi and Dr. V.S. Nagarathinam for their suggestions
and encouragement. It is a great pleasure to thank Dr. V.M. Gandhimathi,
Dr. V. Ravichandran, Dr. S. Jeyakumari, Dr. G. Sakthivel, Dr. M. Santhiah,
Mr. R. Arun, Mr. C. Jeevarathinam, Mr. R. Jothimurugan, Ms. K. Abirami
and Ms. S. Rajamani for typesetting some of the chapters. We thank the
senior publishing editor Luna Han and Michael Davidson, production edi-
tor at Taylor & Francis, for various suggestions and careful editing of the
manuscript, and their team members for smooth handling of the publication
process. Finally, we thank our family members for their unflinching support,
cooperation and encouragement during the course of the preparation of this
work.

Tiruchirapalli S. Rajasekar
May, 2014 R. Velusamy
 About the Authors

Shanmuganathan Rajasekar was born in Thoothu-

kudi, Tamilnadu, India in 1962. He received his B.Sc.
and M.Sc. in Physics both from the St. Joseph’s Col-
lege, Tiruchirapalli. In 1987, he received his M.Phil.
in Physics from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi-
rapalli. He was awarded Ph.D. degree in Physics
(Nonlinear Dynamics) from Bharathidasan Univer-
sity in 1992 under the supervision of Prof. M. Laksh-
manan. He was a visiting scientist during 1992-93 at
the Materials Science Division, Indira Gandhi Cen-
ter for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam and worked on
multifractals and diffusion under Prof. K.P.N. Murthy. In 1993, he joined as
a Lecturer at the Department of Physics, Manonmaniam Sundaranar Uni-
versity, Tirunelveli. In 2003, the book on Nonlinear Dynamics: Integrability,
Chaos and Patterns written by Prof. M. Lakshmanan and the author was pub-
lished by Springer. In 2005, he joined as a Professor at the School of Physics,
Bharathidasan University. With Prof. M. Daniel he edited a book on Non-
linear Dynamics published by Narosa Publishing House in 2009. His recent
research focuses on nonlinear dynamics with a special emphasis on nonlinear
resonances. He has authored or coauthored more than 80 research papers in
nonlinear dynamics.
Ramiah Velusamy was born in Srivilliputhur, Tamil-
nadu, India in the year 1952. He received his B.Sc.
degree in Physics from the Ayya Nadar Janaki Am-
mal College, Sivakasi in 1972 and M.Sc. in Physics
from the P.S.G. Arts and Science College, Coimbat-
ore in 1974. He worked as a demonstrater in the
Department of Physics in P.S.G. Arts and Science
College during 1974-77. He received an M.S. Degree
in Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Tech-
nology, Chennai in the year 1981. In the same year,
he joined in the Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College
as an Assistant Professor in Physics. He was awarded M.Phil. degree in Physics
in the year 1988. He retired in the year 2010. His research topics are quantum
confined systems and wave packet dynamics.

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