MIT22 51F12 Ch2 PDF
MIT22 51F12 Ch2 PDF
2.1
2.2
Quantum mechanics is a linear theory, and so it is natural that vector spaces play an important role in it. A physical
state is represented mathematically by a vector in a Hilbert space (that is, vector spaces on which a positive-denite
scalar product is dened); this is called the space of states. Physical properties like momentum, position, energy,
and so on will be represented by operators acting in the space of states. We will introduce the essential properties
of Hilbert spaces, mainly in the case of nite dimension, as the mathematical theory of Hilbert spaces of innite
dimension is much more complicated than that of spaces of nite dimension
multiplication by scalars.
Using Dirac notation, the vectors are denoted by kets: |k). We can associate to each ket a vector in the dual space
If two vectors |) and |) are part of a vector space, then | ) + |) also belongs to the space. If a vector | ) is in
A set of linearly independent vectors {|i )} is such that k ck |k ) = 0 if and only if ck = 0 k (no trivial combination
The dimension of the space N is the maximum number of linearly independent vectors (which is also the smallest
D: Basis A maximal set of linearly independent vectors in the space is called a basis. (e.g. {|k )}, k = 1, . . . , N ).
Any vector in the space can be written as a linear superposition of the basis vectors:
|) =
ak |k )
(1)
To any vector we can thus associate a column vector of N complex numbers (a1 , a2 ...an )T . Here we are going to
restrict ourselves to bounded, nite dimension spaces (even if many physical spaces are not: for example energy
spaces can be unbounded and position has innite dimension).
D:
Hilbert space The Hilbert space is a linear vector space over complex numbers with an inner product.
D: Inner product An inner product is an ordered mapping from two vectors to a complex number (for a Hilbert
space a mapping from a ket and a bra to a complex number c = (|)) with the following properties:
positivity: (|) 0. The equality holds only for the zero vector |) = 0.
linearity in the second function: (|(c1 1 ) + c2 |2 )) = c1 (|1 ) + c2 (|2 ).
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D:
(|).
Since the Hilbert space is characterized by its inner product, vectors are dened up to a global phase, that is,
|) = ei |). Relative phase is instead very important: |) + ei |) =
6 |) + |).
The inner product properties allow us to dene two geometric inequalities:
Schwartz inequality: |( |)|2 ( | )(|).
Triangular inequality: 1( + )1 11 + 11.
The equality holds only if the two vectors are in the same direction: |) = c|).
There is also an antilinear correspondence between the dual vectors ket and bra:
c1 |1 ) + c2 |2 ) c1 (1 | + c2 (2 |
D:
Orthonormal set A set of vectors {|k )} is orthonormal if for each pair the inner product (k | j ) = k,j .
2.2 Operators
We can dene a set of operators that acting on the vectors return vectors:
D: Operator An operator A on a vector space is a mapping between two vectors in that space: A|) = |).
A linear operator satises:
A(c1 |1 ) + c2 |2 )) = c1 A|1 ) + c2 A|2 )
To characterize and parametrize A we look at its action on each vector in the space. Because of linearity, it is
however enough to characterize A with its action on the N basis vectors {|)k }. In this way we can associate a
matrix representation to any operator, in the same way we associated arrays of complex numbers with the vectors.
In particular, given an orthonormal basis {|v)k }, the matrix representation of the operator A is an N N square
matrix A whose elements are given by Ak,j = (vk | A |vj ).
LN
Let us consider an orthonormal basis {vi }, then as seen any vector can be written as: |) = i=1 ai |vi ). The action
of an operator A becomes:
N
N
X
X
bi |vi )
A|) = |)
Aai |vi ) =
i=1
i=1
To extract one of the coecients, say bk we multiply by the bra (vk |, obtaining:
N
X
i=1
Aki ai = bk
The action of an operator can be thus seen as a matrix multiplication (again, here we are restricting to bounded,
nite dimension spaces that support nite operators, hence this simple matrix representation).
? Question: Perform a simple matrix multiplication.
0 1
1 0
0 1
This is equivalent to Rx vz = vy .
0
0
0
1 0 = 1
0
1
0
The domain of an operator is the subspace on which it acts non-trivially (spanned by k N vectors).
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Two operators A and B are equal if their domains are the same and their action is equal |) in their domains. The
sum and product of operators are then dened as
(A + B)|) = A|) + B|))
(AB)|) = A(B|))
The operators are associative:
A(BC)|) = (AB)C|)
But they are not in general commutative:
D:
AB|) 6= BA|)
Commutator . The commutator of two operators is [A, B] = AB BA. Two operators commute/are commutable
if [A, B] = 0.
2.2.1 Hermitian operators
An important class of operators are self adjoint operators, as observables are described by them.
(
D:
Adjoint The adjoint of an operator A is an operator acting on the dual space with the property: (A ) ) =
D:
Self-adjoint . A self adjoint operator is an operator such that A and A operate on the same domain and with
can also have other notations. From (|) = (|) (where indicates the complex
) = (|(A)) = (|A ) . Also, we can write the inner product as (|(A)) = (|A|)
In matrix representation, this means that the adjoint of an operator is the conjugate
Ak,j = (k| A |j) = (j| A |k) = Aj,k .
(|A|) = (|A|)
(cA) | = |cA = c |A = c A | = c A |
|(cA) | = |cA|
= c |A|
= c |A | = |c A |
(
The second notation (based on Diracs notation) could be seen as implying (|)) = (| (and thus (A|)) = A .
However, this applies the adjoint operation to a vector, while the adjoint is only properly dened for operators. For
discrete dimensional spaces, which allow a matrix representation, there is no ambiguity since we have the equivalence
of the adjoint with the complex-transpose of an operator (which can be dened also for vectors)4 .
4
See also quant-ph/9907069 page 12, for a subtle dierence between Hermitian and self-adjoint innite-dimensional operators
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A self-adjoint operator is also Hermitian in bounded, nite space, therefore we will use either term. Hermitian
operators have some properties:
1. if A, B are both Hermitian, then A + B is Hermitian (but notice that AB is a priori not, unless the two operators
commute, too.).
2. if A, B are both Hermitian but do not commute, then at least AB + BA is Hermitian.
? Question: Prove property # 2.
(AB + BA) = B A + A B = BA + AB.
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D:
The Outer Product |ih| is an operator, since acting on a vector returns a vector: (|ih|) |i = h|i|i.
It defines a projector oP
perator Pi = |vi ihvi |. The sum over all projectors on the space is the identity, therefore, for
any basis set we have: i |vi ihvi | = 11 (closure relation). The product of two projectors is Pj Pk = ik Pj . Projectors
derive their name from thP
e property that they project out a vector component of the related basis vector: given
Pj = |vj i hvj |, Pj |i = Pj k ck |vk i = cj |vj i.
P
D
: Trace - The trace of an operator is the sum of the diagonal elements of an operator Tr {A} = N
j=1 Ajj =
P
j hvj | A |vj i. It is independent of the choice of basis.
D:
Spectral Decomposition - The spectral theorem states that given a self-adjoint operator A on a linear space H,
there exists an orthonormal basis of H consisting of eigenvectors of A. Equivalently, we can state that A can be
written as a linear combination of pairwise orthogonal projections
(which are formed from its eigenvectors). This
P
representation of A is called its spectral decomposition: A = j aj |vj i hvj |, where A |vj i = aj |vj i. In this basis, the
matrix representation of A is diagonal.
Theorem: If two hermitian operators commute, they share a common set of eigenvectors.
D:
|k i hk |).
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1
n
=
? Question: Consider in particular the exponential function: exp(A) =
n n! (A)
k exp(ak ) |ak i hak |. Prove that
1
1
f (ABA ) = Af (B)A
Its easy to show that (ABA1 )n = AB n A1 by expanding the product and using AA1 = 11. In particular for unitary
matrices U 1 = U f (U AU ) = U f (A)U .
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