ONE DIMENSIONAL HARMONIC

OSCILLATOR PROBLEM IN MOMENTUM

SPACE
RANOJIT BARMAN
Enrollment No:PHY17018

Course title:Quantum Mechanics

Course code:PH-418

The Hamiltonian of a particle of mass m which oscillates with an angular

frequency ω under the influence of a one-dimensional harmonic potential is

P̂ 2 1
Ĥ = + mω 2 X̂ 2 (1)
2m 2
The time independent schrödinger equation is given by

P̂ 2 Ψ
+ V̂ Ψ = ÊΨ (2)
2m
we have,

2
∂
X̂ = ιh̄ ∂P , V = 12 mω 2 X̂ 2 = − 12 mh̄2 ω 2 ∂P
∂
2

equation (2) becomes,

P 2Ψ 1 ∂2Ψ
− mω 2 h̄2 = EΨ (3)
2m 2 ∂P 2
or,
∂2Ψ 2E P2
+ ( − )Ψ = 0 (4)
∂P 2 mω 2 h̄2 m2 ω 2 h̄2
to simplify equation (4), we introduce a dimensionless independent variable y
which is related to P by the equation
r
1
y= P (5)
mωh̄
or, √
P = mωh̄y (6)

1
Now we have,
dΨ dΨ dy 1 dΨ
= =√ (7)
dP dy dP mωh̄ dy
and
d2 Ψ 1 d2 Ψ
= (8)
dP 2 mωh̄ dy 2
Substituting these values in equation (4) we obtain,

d2 Ψ 2E
+( − y 2 )Ψ = 0 (9)
dy 2 h̄ω
d2 Ψ
+ ( − y 2 )Ψ = 0 (10)
dy 2
2E
where,  = h̄ω

when y→ ∞, y 2 >> , we may neglect  and hence equation (10) takes the
form

d2 Ψ
− y2 Ψ = 0 (11)
dy 2
for large values of y, the approximate sloution of the equation (11) is
2
Ψ = e−y /2
(12)
when y→ ∞, the exponential will dominate a polynomial so we can write the
general solution as,
2
Ψ = e−y /2 H(y) (13)
where H(y) is a finite polynomial in y
putting this solution in eq (10), we get,

d2 H(y) dH(y)
2
− 2y + ( − 1)H(y) = 0 (14)
dy dy
This is our differential equation for polynomial H(y)
We can write H(y) as a sum of terms
∞
X
H(y) = an y n (15)
n=0

Plugging it into the differential equation,

∞
X
[(n + 2)(n + 1)an+2 y n − 2nan y n + ( − 1)an y n ] = 0 (16)
n=0
P∞
Or, n=0 [(n + 2)(n + 1)an+2 − (2n + 1 − )an ]y n = 0

2
This equation must be true for all values of y and therefore the coefficients
of each power of y must vanish separately, therefore we have,

(n + 2)(n + 1)an+2 − (2n + 1 − )an = 0 (17)

Or,
2n + 1 − 
an+2 = an (18)
(n + 1)(n + 2)
where n=0,1,2,3,.....
The above series will terminate only when,

 = 2n + 1
Then the last term will be of order n, an+2 = an = o
The acceptable solutions then satisfy the requirement,
2E
 = 2n + 1 = (19)
h̄ω
1
E = (n + )h̄ω (20)
2
Again, we get quantized energy eigenvalues when we set the boundary conditions
at infinity. The ground state energy will be E0 = 21 h̄ω
Since, the eigenvalues of the total energy depend only on the quantum number
n, therefore all the energy levels of the oscillator are non-degenerate.
Also, the successive energy levels are equally spaced,the separation between two
adjascent energy levels are h̄ω.

Wave function of the harmonic oscillator: H(y) is a polynomial of degree

n with a constant multiplier. If the multiplier is choosen such that the coeffi-
cient of y n is 2n . The polynomial is denoted by Hn (y) and is called Hermite’s
polynomial.Then the wave-function for the state En is given by
2
Ψn = N n e−y /2
H n (y) (21)

Nn is the normalization constant and y = √ 1 P

mh̄ω

P2
Therefore the wave-function is Ψn = N n e− 2mh̄ H n (y)

Normalization condition is given by

3
R∞
−∞
Ψn * (P )Ψn (P )dP = 1
R ∞ −P 2
Or, 2|N |2 0 e mh̄ω H n 2 (y)dP = 1
R ∞ −P 2 P∞
Or, 2|N |2 0 e mh̄ω ( n=0 2n y n )2 dP = 1
P∞ 2n
R ∞ − P 2 2n
Or, 2|N n |2 n=0 (mh̄ω) n 0
e mh̄ω P dP = 1

Solving this, we obtain

1
Nn = √21n n! (πmωh̄)− 4

Thus the wave function is given by

1 1 −P 2 P
Ψn (P ) = √ (πmωh̄)− 4 exp( )H n ( √ ) (22)
n
2 n! 2mωh̄ mωh̄

Conclusion: I have obtained the Eigenvalues of energy and wave-function for

the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator in momentum space. Previously we
found that eigenvalues of energy and wave-function for the oscillator in position
space are respectively given by
1
E n = (n + )h̄ω (23)
2
and
mωx2
r
1 πh̄ − 1 mω
Ψn (x) = √ ( ) 4 exp(− )H n ( x) (24)
2 n! mω
n h̄ h̄
we see that Energy equations(20) and (23) are exactly the same. The normalized
wave function will also behave similar in both spaces.