Problem Set 7

Aaron Hillman
PHYS 440
March 31, 2015
Problem 1.

+ bQg
= aqf + bqg = q(af + bg)
+ bg) = aQf
(a) Q(af
Clearly the conditions of the problem are satisfied.
d2 x
d2 x
x
(b) dx
= ex and dx
2e
2 e = e , therefore they are eigenfunctions of the operator with eigenvalue 1. We can follow the Gram-Schmidt procedure for orthogonalization. First consider
ex and normalize it. We have
Z 1
2
e2x dx = 1
A
1

1
A2 (e2 e2 ) = 1
2p
A = csch(2)
We can then consider the inner product of ex with the normalized vector above. We have
Z 1p
p
p
x
x
csch(2)dx = 2 csch(2)
he | csch(2)e i =
1

p
So now our vector orthogonal to csch(2)ex is ex 2csch(x)ex . We can normalize this
Z 1
2
e2x 4csch(2) + 2csch2 (2)e2x dx = 1
A
1
1

1 2x
2
2
2x 
A (8csch(2) + e + csch (x)e  ) = 1
2
1

 12
A = 6csch(2) + sinh(2)
Therefore our orthonogmal basis is
p
csch(2)ex
ex 2csch(x)ex
p
e2 =
sinh(2) 6csch(2)
e1 =

Problem 2.
ipx

No it is not. The eigenfunctions of the momentum operator are Ae ~ . In order to write the
wave function for the ground state of the infinite square well, we need to take the difference
ipx
of even multiples of e ~ (a la Eulers identity). This is because the particle has definite
magnitude of momentum, but the momentum has equal probability of pointing to the
right or left. The eigenfunctions each represent a particle moving right and one moving left.
Problem 3.
We can begin with


Z 
1
~ d ipx/~
dp dx
e
hxi =
i dp
2~




 
Z
Z

~

ipx/~ 
ipx/~

=
e
 e
dp dx
p
i 2~
 
Z

Z
1

ipx/~ ~
=

dp dx
e
i p
2~
Z

We can change the order of integration to write



Z
Z
~
1
ipx/~

e
dx
dp
i p
2~


Z
~
=
dp
i p

Problem 4.
(a) It will be in state 1 .
9
(b) It could result in b1 with probability 25
or b2 with probability
(c) We can see by rearranging the given equations that

16
.
25

31 + 42
5
41 32
2 =
5
1 =

The probability of getting a1 , given the probabilities of measuring b1 and b2 is therefore

9 2
( 25
) + ( 16
)2 = 337
.
25
625