The Harmonic Oscillator: General Problem

Classical harmonic oscillator: mass m attached to a spring of force constant k. Hookes law:

Quantum problem:

Want to solve the Schrdinger equation with this potential:

There are two methods to solve it. We will start with the algebraic method (a clever algebraic technique).

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The Harmonic Oscillator: The Algebraic Method

The basic idea is to factor the Hamiltonian

For numbers, the solution is obvious: We cannot do that here since p and x are operators and xp is not the same as px. Still, lets consider

First, we calculate a a+ and see what we will get: 33

In general, the commutator of any two operators is

We need to calculate the commutator [x, p]. To deal with operators, use a test function f (x) (any function):

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Exercise 4
Find the following: (a) a+ a (b) [a , a+ ]

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The Schrdinger equation can be written as

Crucial step: we are now going to prove that if satises the Schrdinger equation with energy E:

then a+ satises the Schrdinger equation with energy (E + h ):

Proof:

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We can also prove that a is a solution with energy (E h ):

Now, if we know one solution, we can generate all solutions using operators a+ and a . This is why these operators are called ladder operators. a+ is a raising operator and a is a lowering operator.

Problem: what happens if we keep applying the lowering operator? Eventually, we get an energy that is lower than zero, which we cannot have. Therefore, eventually we get to the lowest step of the ladder, which we will call 0 :

This is our one solution that we need to nd all the rest! We will now determine this lowest state:

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The corresponding energy is found from

Note: we have already found all the possible energies! 38

Summary The Quantum harmonic oscillator:

' $

Potential:

1 V (x) = m 2 x2 2

The ladder operators: Raising operator: 1 a+ = (ip + m x) 2m h Lowering operator: 1 a = (ip + m x) 2m h Denition of commutator: [A, B] = AB BA Canonical commutation relation: [x, p] = ih The ground (lowest) solution of the time-independent Schrdinger equation for the harmonic oscillator is: 0 (x) = m 1/4 m x2 h e 2 h 1 E0 = h 2

To nd all other functions we can use n (x) = An (a+ )n 0 (x). The possible energies are: En = n +
&

1 h 2
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