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Sakurai 3.1

This document contains information about eigenvalues and eigenvectors of spin operators. It also contains the matrix representation of the Hamiltonian and shows that a given unitary operator U is both unitary and unimodular.

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Pedro Herrera
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299 views1 page

Sakurai 3.1

This document contains information about eigenvalues and eigenvectors of spin operators. It also contains the matrix representation of the Hamiltonian and shows that a given unitary operator U is both unitary and unimodular.

Uploaded by

Pedro Herrera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Copyright, Pearson Education.

34

Chapter Three
1. Note: The original solution manual does not answer this problem correctly.The eigenvalues
.
⌥ satisfy ⌥2 i( i) = ⌥2 1 = 0, i.e. ⌥ = ±1, as they must be, since Sy = (h̄/2)⌦y has
eigenvalues ±h̄/2. The eigenvectors are well known by now, namely
⌦ ↵ ⌦ ↵ ⌦ ↵
. 1 1 . 1 1 .
|Sy ; +↵ = and |Sy ; ↵ = so, for | ↵=
2 i 2 i ⇥

where | |2 +|⇥|2 = 1, the probability of finding Sy = +h̄/2 is |⌦Sy ; +| ↵|2 = |( i⇥)/ 2|2 =
(1 + Im( ⇥ ⇥))/2. Clearly this gives the right answer for | ↵ = |Sy ; ±↵. It might have been
more interesting, though, to ask for the expectation value of Sy , namely
⌦ ↵⌦ ↵
h̄ ⇤ ⇥ ⇥ ⌅ 0 i h̄ h̄
⌦ |Sy | ↵ = ⇥ = i (⇥ ⇥ ⇥
⇥) = Im( ⇥ ⇥)
2 i 0 ⇥ 2 2

.
2. Since S = (h̄/2) , the matrix representation of the Hamiltonian is

. Bz Bx + iBy
H=µ
Bx iBy Bz

Therefore, the characteristic equation for the eigenvalues ⌥ is

( µBz ⌥)(µBz ⌥) µ2 ( B x iBy )( Bx + iBy ) = µ2 (Bz2 + Bx2 + By2 ) + ⌥2 = 0

so the eigenvalues are ⌥ = ±µB where B 2 = Bx2 + By2 + Bz2 . Of course.

3. We have U = A(A† ) 1 where A ⌅ a0 + i · a and AA† = a20 + ( · a)2 = a20 + a2 ⌅ 2 ,


using (3.2.41). So U U † = A(A† ) 1 A 1 A† = A(AA† ) 1 A† = A(1/ 2 )A† = 2 / 2 = 1 and U
is unitary. Now det U = det A/det A† , so writing these out as

a0 + ia3 ia1 + a2 a0 ia3 ia1 a2


A= and A† =
ia1 a2 a0 ia3 ia1 + a2 a0 + ia3

we see that det A = 2


= det A† , so det U = 2
/ 2
= 1 and U is unimodular.

See (3.3.7) and (3.3.10). We want to find expressions for the complex numbers a and b in
terms of our real parameters a0 , a1 , a2 , and a3 . To do this, write
1 a0 a2 + 2ia0 a3 2a0 a2 + 2ia0 a1
1
U = AAA 1 (A† ) 1
= A2 (A† A) 1
= A2 =
2 2 2a0 a2 + 2ia0 a1 a0 a2 2ia0 a3
!
so cos(↵/2) = Re(a) = (a0 a2 )/ 2 which gives sin(↵/2) = 1 cos2 (↵/2) = 2a0 |a|/ 2 ,
and nx = Im(b)/ sin(↵/2) = a1 /|a|; ny = Re(b)/ sin(↵/2) = a2 /|a|; and
nz = Im(a)/ sin(↵/2) = a3 /|a|.

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