Course: Quantum Mechanics I (PH31011,PH41011) : 20162017(I)

Assignment 3
marked problems are to be done in the tutorial, the rest are for homework.
where ax , ay , az are
1. Consider the ordinary vectors in three dimensions, axi + ayj + az k
complex numbers.
(a) Does the subset of all vectors with az = 0 constitute a vector space? If so, what is its
dimension? If not, why?
* (b) Consider the subset of all vectors whose z component is 1. Is this a vector space?
(c) Consider the subset of vectors which in which all components of any vector are equal. Is
this a vector space?
* 2. Consider a three dimensional vector space spanned by an orthonormal basis |1i, |2i
and |3i. The kets |i and |i are given by
|i = i|1i 2|2i i|3i

|i = i|1i + 2|3i

(1)

(a) Construct the dual vectors h|, h| in terms of the dual basis.
(b) Find h|i and h|i. Check the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.
= |ih|, in this basis, and construct
(c) Find all nine matrix elements of the operator A
the matrix representation of A. Is the matrix Hermitian?
3. Consider the functions C(n) (x) as defined in the class. Assume s(x) = x, w(x) = ex x
( 1). Obtain C(0) (x), C(1) , C(2) (x). Show that they are mutually orthogonal functions.
Find the corresponding normalisation constants.
for the
* 4. Write down the matrix representations for the operators
a+ ,
a , x
, p
and H
one dimensional quantum simple harmonic oscillator, in the energy eigenfunction basis (i.e.
|ni).
5.(a) Let U be a unitary operator and U|u1 i = 1 |u1 i ; U|u2 i = 2 |u2 i. Show that |1 | =
|2 | = 1.

(b) Suppose the operators A, B are Hermitian and C, D are unitary. Then prove the
following : (i) C 1 AC is Hermitian

(ii) C 1 DC is unitary.

(iii) i(AB BA) is Hermitian.

* 6. (a) Consider a physical system whose three dimensional state space is spanned by
the orthonormal basis formed by the three kets |u1 i, |u2 i, |u3 i. In the basis of these three
vectors, taken in this order, the two operators H and B are given as :
Hij = h0 Tij

Bij = bVij

(2)

where T11 = 1, T22 = T33 = 1 (all other elements of Tij are zero) and V11 = 1, V23 = V32 = 1
(all other elements are zero). The quantities 0 and b are real constants.
Check if H, B are Hermitian and if they commute. Find a common basis for both H and
B.
(b) In the same state space, consider two operators Lz and S defined by :
Lz |u1 i = |u1 i ;
S|u1 i = |u3 i ;

Lz |u2 i = 0 ;
S|u2 i = |u2 i ;

Lz |u3 i = |u3 i

(3)

S|u3 i = |u1 i

(4)

Write down the matrices which represent, in the (|u1 i, |u2 i, |u3 i) basis the operators Lz ,
L2z , S, S 2 . Give the form of the most general matrix which represents an operator which
commutes separately with Lz , with L2z and with S 2 .
7. (a) Set up the linear transformation matrix A which carries (1, 0, 0) into (1, 2, 3) ; (0, 1, 0)
into (3, 1, 2) and (0, 0, 1) into (2, 1, 3).
(b). Given the linear transformation |yi = R|xi where R is given as the matrix:

1 1 0

1 0

0 0 1

(5)

relative to the basis [0, 1, 2], [4, 1, 0] and [2, 0, 4]. Find the representation relative to the
basis comprising of the vectors [1, 1, 1], [1, 0, 1] and [1, 2, 1].
* 8. Functions of matrices are defined by their Taylor series expansion, for example
eM = 1 + M +

1 2
M + .....
2!

(6)

(a) Find eM if

0 1 3

0 4

(7)

(8)

0 0 0

(b) Show that if M is diagonalisable, then

det eM = eT rM
(c) Show that if two matrices M, N commute then eM+N = eM eN .
(d) If H is Hermitian then eiH is unitary.
9. Imagine a system with two linearly independent states
|1i =

|2i =

(9)

The most general state is a normalised linear combination

|s(t)i = a|1i + b|2i =

a
b

(10)

with |a|2 + |b|2 = 1. The Hamiltonian can be expressed as

H=

(11)

where g and h are real constants. If the systems starts out at t = 0 in the state |1i what is
its state at time t?
* 10. (a) A particle of mass m is bound in a delta function potential well V (x) = (x).
What is the probability that a measurement of its momentum would yield a value greater
than p0 =

m
?

(b) Find the momentum space wave function (p, t) for a particle in the ground state of the
harmonic oscillator.
(c) Find the momentum space wave function n (p, t) for the nth stationary state of the
infinite square well. Plot |1 (p, t)|2 , |2 (p, t)|2 as functions of p. Use n (p, t) to calculate
the expectation value of p2 .