Department of Physics

College of Science
University of Sulaimani
Subject: Advanced Quantum Mechanics
Course Book: MSc student.
Academic Year: 2020/2021

Course name Quantum Mechanics

Lecturer in charge
Department/ College Physics / Science
Contact e-mail: aziz.fatah@univsul.edu.iq
Theory: 3 per week
Time (in hours) per week
Practical : No
Office hours Three hours
Course code
+ B.Sc degree at the University of Salahaddin-College of
Science-Department of Physics-Iraq in 1993.
+ M.Sc degree at the University of Salahaddin-College of
Teacher’s academic profile
Science-Department of Physics-Iraq in 2001.
+ Ph.D degree at the University of Baghdad-College of
Science-Department of Physics-Iraq in 2009.

Keywords

1
Course overview
This text was written for quantum mechanics for MSs. Students. Quan-
tum physics (or quantum mechanics in Physics) plays important role in
the physical sciences especially those which are microscopic in nature
like atomic physics, nuclear physics, ..ect in which the rules of classi-
cal mechanics fail to study the property of the system . Therefore, the
quantum physics must not be taken as a branch in physical science but
it must be considered as an essential and theoretical tool (technique) to
deal with other fields in theoretical physics.
The chapters of this course were prepared for those students that have
taken the quantum mechanics of B.Sc. stage that concerns widely on
the postulates of quantum mechanics and solution of some basic prob-
lems related to the Schrodinger equation.
The aim of this text is to learn the student about:
1)-The Dirac notation in Hilbert space and representation of state vec-
tors and operators as two main columns of the measurements in quan-
tum mechanics.
2)-Role of the unitary transformations among the orthonormal bases in
Hilbert space and then the variants and invariant quantities under the
effect of such transformations.
3)-The types of operators in quantum mechanics
4)-The measurements in quantum mechanics and connection between
the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the expectation values of the
physical observables. As well as the role of the compatible and incom-
patible operators will be connected with uncertainty principle and pro-
cess of measurements.
5)-The continuous state vectors and the transformation between the
position and momentum representations
6)-The basics of the second quantization (raising and lowering opera-
2
tors) for solving the eigenvalue equation of harmonic oscillator poten-
tial.
7)-Matrix elements of some physical quantities for the harmonic oscilla-
tor Hamiltonian.
8)- Classification of the state vectors and operators corresponding to
the pictures in quantum mechanics with taking into consideration effect
of any picture on the states and operators in quantum mechanics.
9)-General angular momentum in quantum mechanics and methods of
finding the matrices of some angular momenta.
10)- Infinitesimal unitary operators in space, time, and angular parts.
11)-Approximation methods in quantum mechanics
Finally, the text covers the following chapters:
Chapter one
This chapter starts with the Dirac bra and ket notations in Hilbert space
with concerning on the expansion methods of the physical state vec-
tors and operators of dynamical physics in terms of the orthonormal
basis in Hilbert space. One of the important sections of this chapter is
to explain the process of measurement in quantum mechanics and role
of the uncertainty in the instantaneous measurement for two operators
corresponding to the commutation relation.
In another section of this chapter the role of the unitary operators will
be taken into consideration to make the transformation for the states
and operators and then their effect will be proposed corresponding to
the invariant quantities
This chapter covers the following titles:
1)- State vectors in Hilbert space & their representations
2)- Representation of the operators and their matrix elements
3)- Some important types of the matrices in quantum mechanics
4)- Uncertainty operators and compatible observables
3
5)- Change of basis and unitary transformation
6)- Unitary transformation and invariants
7)- Functions of operators
Chapter two
In this chapter the student knows the role of the continuous basis in
Hilbert space and learns how he can expand a state vector with those
bases that represent the position and momentum representation and
the transformation between them.
Second quantization in quantum mechanics is an important method
that causes to quantize the operators. Thus, a section of this chapter
will be abbreviated for the second quantization method with the using
of raising and lowering operators to find the eigenvalues and eigenvec-
tors of one dimensional harmonic oscillator then trying to find the ma-
trix elements of some physical observables corresponding to the men-
tioned potential. This chapter includes the following sections:
1)- Continuous state vectors & position momentum representation
2)- Harmonic oscillator in one-dimension
Chapter three
The Sections of this chapter include the pictures ( or representations)
in quantum mechanics, i.e Schrodinger , Heisenberg and interaction pic-
tures, and their different effects on both states and operators.
Also the infinitesimal unitary operators are derived and proposed to de-
fine the displacements in quantum mechanics which can be classified
into three types, position-, time-, and angular-displacements and their
corresponding operators will be the remained for the sections of this
chapter.
The sections of this chapter are given by the following titles:
1)-The pictures (or representations) in quantum mechanics
2)- The Schrodinger picture
4
3)- Heisenberg Picture
4)- Heisenberg representation of the harmonic oscillator
5)- Interaction picture
6)- The infinitesimal unitary operator and the translations in quantum
mechanics
7)- Displacement in space
8)- Time displacement
Chapter four
This chapter has specialized to the matrix representation of a general
angular momentum in quantum mechanics and determination of the
matrices with their required commutators. Then it will be applied for
the case of orbital angular momentum, and angular momenta of and 1.
Finally, the addition of angular momenta and the Clebsch-Gordan coef-
ficients will be introduced to study the coupling process for the angular
momenta. Rotation in quantum mechanics (that represents the angular
displacement) will be the conclusion of this chapter. The chapter has
the following sections:
1)-Angular momentum
2)- Matrix Elements of the Operators
3)- Application to orbital angular momentum
4)- The spherical harmonics and their normalization
5)- Angular momentum matrices for spin 1/2 and 1 particles
6)- Addition of angular momenta and Clsbsch-Gordan coefficients
7)- Addition of angular momentum for j1=j2= 1
8)- Expression for rotation operators in terms of angular momentum
observables
9)- Rotation in spin-states
10)-Reflection and parity
11)- Parity of the spherical harmonics
5
Chapter five
Approximation methods can be considered as an important tool for those
problems in quantum mechanics which cannot be solved analytically.
The perturbation and variation methods represent the most famous
types of such approximation methods.
In this chapter we start with the time-independent perturbation for the
(degenerate and non-degenerate) case like linear Stark effect. Another
section of this chapter was used to the variation method and its deriva-
tion that is a good approximation for the case of ground states for the
quantum state of the system. Finally, the time-dependent perturbation
will be the final section of this chapter to derive the Golden rule and
use it to solve some problems. The following titles represent the sec-
tions of this chapter:
1-)Non-degenerate time-independent perturbation
2-)Degenerate time-independent perturbation
3)-Linear Stark effect
4)-Variation method
5)-Time-dependent perturbation
6)-Transition probability
References
1)-Principles of Quantum mechanics. By R. Shankar
2)-Modern Q.M. By J. J. Sakurai.
3)-Quantum mechanics. By Ernest S. Abers
4)-Theory and problems of Q. M. (Schaum’s Outline )
5)-Introductory Q. M. . By Rechard L. Liboff
6)- Quantum Mechanics. By Nouredine Zettili
7)- QUANTUM THEORY. By E.B. MANOUKIAN
8)- Q. M. By V. K. Thankappan
9)- Q. M. By Albert Messiah (Vol.1 & Vol.2)
6
10)- Q. M. By C. Cohen(Vol.1 & Vol.2)
11)-Q. M. By Leonard I. Schiff.
Problems and their solutions
Q1/Use the state vectors to show that:
(AB)−1 = B −1A−1, where A and B are two operators.
Sol./Let (AB)−1 |si = |ti, then

AB (AB)−1 |si = AB |ti V |si = AB |ti , AB (AB)−1 = I

∴ A−1 |si = A−1AB |ti V A−1 |si = B |ti , A−1A = I

∴ B −1A−1 |si = B −1B |ti = |ti , B −1B = I

∴ B −1A−1 |si = (AB)−1 |si = |ti V (AB)−1 = B −1A−1

Q2/Use the operator A and state vectors |si and |ti to

prove that hs | A | ti is the same when for al methods of
expansion in the Hilbert space.
Sol./
a)- we expand the state vectors only, i.e,
P ∗ 
hs| = i ai hi| 



P 
|ti = |j i

b
j j

X X X
∴ hs | A | ti = a∗i hi| A bj |j i = a∗i bj hi | A | ji
i j j
X
= a∗i bj Aij , hi | A | ji = Aij
ij

7
b)-: we expand A
X
hs | A | ti = hs | IAI | ti = hs | ii hi | A | ji hj | ti
ij
X
= a∗i bj Aij
ij

Here, hj | ti = bj , hs | ii = a∗i
3)- we expand both A and state vectors, or
P ∗ 
hs| = i ai hi| 



P 
|ti = |j i

b
j j


, and
X X
A = IAI = |ki hl| hk | A | li = Akl |ki hl|
kl kl

! ! 
X X X
∴ hs | A | ti = a∗i hi| Akl |ki hl|  bj |j i
i kl j
X
= a∗i bj hi | A | ji hi | ki hl | ji
ijkl
X
= a∗i bj Aij δ ik δ lj
ijkl
X
= a∗i bj Aij
ij

8
Q3/Prove that displacement in position of state vectors
happens under the effect of the linear momentum opera-
tor.
Proof./Let we have the following transformation

|x0 i = Uα (p) |xi = |x + αi (1)

∴ |xi = Uα+ (p) |x + αi (2)

Now by assuming that y = x + α V x = y − α, then

Uα+ (p) |y i = |y − αi (3)

Thus, from eqs.(1 & 3), we find that:

Uα+ (p) Uα (p) |xi = Uα+ (p) [Uα (p) |xi]

= Uα+ (p) |x + αi = |xi

For two consequence unitary operators, i.e., Uβ (p) & Uα (p) we obtain:

Uβ (p) Uα (p) |xi = Uβ (p) [Uα (p) |xi] = Uβ (p) |x + αi = |x + α + β i

∴ Uβ (p) Uα (p) |xi = |x + α + β i

, and also we have:

(Uα (p))3 |xi = (Uα (p))2Uα (p) |xi = (Uα (p))2 |x + αi

= Uα (p) Uα (p) |x + αi = Uα (p) |x + 2αi = |x + 3αi

To determine the operator corresponding to the above transformation,

Taylor series expansion of |x + αi around x, can be used as below:
 
∂ h px i ∂
|x + αi = 1 + α |xi = 1 + iα |xi , px = −i }
∂x } ∂x

9
 α ∂
∴ Uα (px) = 1 + i
px , px = −i }
} ∂x
Q4/Use the variation method to obtain the ground state
energy of harmonic oscillator.
Sol./ For H.O. we can use the trial function

x2
ϕ = e−c

, then from the normalization condition we find that:

Z ∞
2
hϕ | ϕi = |A|2 e−2c x dx = 1
−∞
r r
π 4 2c
∴ |A|2 =1 VA=
2c π
r
4 2c 2
∴ ϕ= e−c x
π
The quantity E(c) is determined from:

−}2 d2 ϕ 1 2 2
E (c) = ϕ + m ω x ϕϕ
2m dx2 2  
2 −c x2
∞ d e
r
−}2 2c
Z
−c x2
= e dx
2m π −∞ dx2
r Z ∞
2c 1 2
+ m ω2 e−2c x x2 dx
π 2 −∞
2
r Z ∞
−} 2c 2
e−2c x 1 − 2c x2 dx

=
2m π −∞
r Z ∞
c 2
+ m ω2 e−2c x x2 dx
2π −∞

}2c m ω2
∴ E (c) = +
2m 8c

10
To find the minimum value of c we must use
dE }2 m ω2 mω
= − =0 V c=
dc 2m 8 c2 2}
}2c m ω2 }2 m ω m ω2 2 }
∴ E (c) = + = +
2m 8c 2m 2 } 8 mω
}ω }ω }ω
= + =
4 4 2
Q5/ Find the rotation operator for a spin particle
→
− →
−
By supposing that L = S , the rotation operator can be expressed
as
α →
− α →
−
Ru (α) = e−i } S .û
= e−i 2 σ .û

, that represents the rotation operator through an angle α about the

unit vector û .
→
− → −
By taking into account that A = B = C û, then we find that:
 → −  → →
− →
− →
− → − →−
→
−
∴ σ .A − →
−
σ .B = i σ . A × B + A.B I
∴ (→
−
σ .û) (→
−
σ .û) = û.û = 1
∴ (→
− 2
σ .û) = 1

, which leads to

 1 if n is even


(→
− n
σ .û) =
→ −


σ .û if n is odd

Corresponding to the exponential expansion, the rotation operator can

be expanded to be
∞ n X∞ n
(−1)n iα n

→
− (−1) iα
(→
− n
X
Ru (α) = σ .û = σ .û)
n=0
n! 2 n=0
n! 2

11
 ∞ α n

n
− 2 (i) →
(−
n
X
= σ .û)
n=0
n!
Separating the odd and even values of , the above equation can be rewrit-
ten as
α n

n
− α2


(i)n + (→
−
X X
Ru (α) = 2
σ .û) (i)n
n=0,2
n! n=1,3,5
n!

But we can show that


n
(i) = 1, −1, 1, −1, . . . f or n = 0, 2, 4, 6, . . . 



n
(i) = i, −i, i, −i, . . . f or n = 1, 3, 5, 7, . . .



, thus, Ru (α) becomes

X (i)n  α n X (i)n  α n
Ru (α) = →
−
+ ( σ .û) −
n=0,2
n! 2 n=1,3,5
n! 2
α 2 α 4 α 6
"


#
2 2 2
= 1− + − + ..
2! 4! 6!
α 1 α 3 α 5
"


#
− i (→
−
σ .û) 2
− 2
+ 2
− ..
1! 3! 5!
α α
∴ Ru (α) = cos →
−
I−i ( σ .û) sin
2 2
Knowing the fact that in the spherical and Cartezian coordinates:

û = (sinθ cosϕ , sinθ sinϕ , cosθ ) 



→
−


σ = (σx, σy , σz ) 

12
, then the definitions of σx, σy and , óz require

→
−
σ .û = σxux + σy uy + σz uz
! !
0 sinθ cosϕ 0 −sinθ sinϕ
= +i
sinθ cosϕ 0 sinθ sinϕ 0
!
cosθ 0
+
0 −cosθ

!
−iϕ
cosθ sinθ e
∴→
−
σ .û =
sinθ e−iϕ −cosθ

, and hence we have

! !
−iϕ
α 1 0 cosθ sinθ e α
Ru (α) = cos −i sin
2 0 1 sinθ e−iϕ −cosθ 2

!
!
α α −iϕ α



cos 2 0 cosθ sin 2 sinθ e sin 2
= α

−i −iϕ α

α


0 cos 2 sinθ e sin 2 −cosθ sin 2

!
α α −iϕ α




cos 2 − icosθ sin 2 sinθ e sin 2
=
sinθ e−iϕ sin α2 cos α2 + icosθ sin α




2

13