Homework 4

Problem 1 (10 p)
1. This is a practice of the manipulation of the totally anti-symmetric tensor, ϵijk . The
summation of the repeated indices is understood. We can define the three orbital angular
momentum components as
L̂i = ϵijk x̂j p̂k . (0.1)

• Show
[L̂i , L̂j ] = iℏϵijk L̂k , (0.2)
directly from the above definition of L̂i . Hint: The following formula may be useful:

ϵaij ϵakl = δik δjl − δil δjk (0.3)

Problem 2 (90 p)
Consider the system of a single proton and an electron interacting with a Coulomb force. In
the limit of the large proton mass mP → ∞ and neglecting the effect of spin and relativistic
effects, the Hamiltonian is given by
p⃗2 e2
Ĥ = − , (0.4)
2m r
where m and p⃗ are the mass and the momentum of the electron and r is the distance between
the proton and the electron. We use the spherical coordinate where the origin of the coordinate
is fixed at the position of the proton. We consider the bound states (E < 0) of the system,
that is the states of the hydrogen atom.
We note the following information.
• The Laplacian operator is represented in the Schrödinger representation of the spherical
coordinate as
2
ˆ 2 = 1 ∂ 2 r − L̂ ,
∇ (0.5)
r r ℏ2 r 2
where L̂2 = L̂i L̂i .

• The spherical harmonics Yl,m (θ, ϕ) is the simultaneous eigenfunction of L2 and Lz :

L2 Yl,m (θ, ϕ) = ℏ2 l(l + 1)Yl,m (θ, ϕ), Lz Yl,m (θ, ϕ) = ℏmYl,m (θ, ϕ) . (0.6)

The first few spherical harminics are given by

r r r
1 3 3 ±iϕ
Y00 = , Y10 = cos θ, Y1,±1 = ∓ e sin θ . (0.7)
4π 4π 8π

1
1. Write the energy eigenstates in the form
1
Ψ(r, θ, ϕ) = R(r)Yl,m (θ, ϕ), R(r) = u(r) . (0.8)
r
Show that the Schödinger equation can be recast into
ℏ2 d2 ℏ2 l(l + 1) 1 e2
 
− + − u(r) = Eu(r) . (0.9)
2m dr2 2m r2 r

2. We define the constants

ℏ2 a e2 2me2
b≡ 2
= , E∗ ≡ = , (0.10)
2me 2 b ℏ2
where a = 0.529 × 10−10 m is the Bohr radius. Using these constants we replace the
distance r and the energy eigenvalue E by the dimensionless quantities

ρ ≡ r/b, ϵ ≡ −E/E ∗ > 0. (0.11)

Show that using these quantities the Schrödinger equation (0.9) can be simplified into
d2
 
l(l + 1) 1
− 2+ − + ϵ u(ρ) = 0 . (0.12)
dρ ρ2 ρ

3. Show that in the ρ ≫ 1 limit, the wave function must behave as

√
u(r) ∼ e− ϵρ
. (0.13)

4. Show that in the ρ ≪ 1 limit, the wave function must behave as

u(r) ∼ ρl+1 . (0.14)

5. Let us postulate the wave function for general ρ is given by

√
u(ρ) = ρl+1 e− ϵρ
v(ρ) , (0.15)

where v(ρ) is some polynomial function. The v(ρ) must not spoil the asymptotic be-
haviours (0.13) and (0.14). This means the series must start from a constant, c0 , and
terminates at some power N (N ≥ 0):
N
X
2 N
v(ρ) = c0 + c1 ρ + c2 ρ + · · · + cN ρ = cj ρ j . (0.16)
j=0

Plug this expression into Eq. (0.12) and show the expansion coefficients must satisfy
the following recursive relation
 √ 
2 ϵ(l + j + 1) − 1
cj+1 = cj . (0.17)
(2l + j + 2)(j + 1)

2
6. The fact that the series must terminates at N implies that the above recursive relation
must produce cN +1 = 0 for a given N . From this fact, show that the bound state energy
is characterised by some integer n as
E1
En = (0.18)
n2
where
me4
E1 = − = −13.4 eV . (0.19)
2ℏ2
and n = l + N + 1. What are the possible values of n and l?

7. Show that there are n2 degenerate states for a given n, ignoring the spin.

8. The hydrogen atom was at an excited state with n = nI . Later this state jumps into a
lower excited state with n = nF by emitting a single photon. What is the wave length
λ of the emitted photon in terms of E1 , c, h, nI and nF ? Use the Planck formula
Eγ = hν = chλ
.

9. Using Eqs. (0.7), (0.8), (0.11), (0.15) and (0.17), find the wave function Ψ100 , Ψ200 , Ψ210
and Ψ21,±1 up to normalisation.