763622S ADVANCED QUANTUM MECHANICS Solutions 1 Spring 2010

1. Warm up
a) Show that the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator A are real and that the eigenkets
of A corresponding to dierent eigenvalues are orthogonal.
b) Show that if the state ket
P |αi = a0 ca0 |a i is normalized then the expansion coe-
0
P
cients ca0 must satisfy a0 |ca0 |2 = 1.
Solution:

a)
i) A number c is shown to be real if c? = c. Let us study Hermitian operator A
to whom holds A† = A and an eigenstate |ai corresponding an eigenvalue a,
such that A |ai = a |ai. Based on evalution of the inner product
c = ha |A| ai = aha|ai

the eigenvalue a has the expression

c
a= .
ha|ai

Let us now study what is a? ?

 † 
? ? ( a A  a )
c (ha |A| ai) ha |A| ai
a? = ?
= = = = a.
(ha|ai) ha|ai ha|ai ha|ai

Now it has been proven that a Hermitian operator A has real eigenvalues.
ii) To prove that the eigenkets of A corresponding to dierent eigenvalues are
orthogonal (i.e. hb|ai = 0), we examine the inner product hb |A| ai between
two eigenstates |ai and |bi corresponding dierent eigenvalues a and b, (a 6= b).
The inner product can be evaluated two dierent ways:
d = hb |A| ai = ahb|ai

d = hb |A| ai = b A†  a = bhb|ai.

  

In the latter, the hermicity of A is applied. Now the above two expression are
subtracted from each other
0 = (a − b)hb|ai

which implies in case of a 6= b that hb|ai = 0.

 b) First of all,
! !
R,
X X X X
hα|αi = c?a0 ha0 | ca00 |a00 i = c?a0 ca00 ha0 |a00 i = |ca0 |2 ∈
a0 a00 a0 ,a00 a0

then the normalization condition

|hα|αi|2 = (hα|αi)2 = 1
straight implies that
X
1 = hα|αi = |ca0 |2 .
a0

The previous proof about orthogonality (a.ii) holds also for a degenerate case, then corre-
sponding an eigenvalue, say, b, we have a set of eigenstates |b1 i , |b2 i , . . . , |bj i, but anyway
all of them are orthogonal to some other eigenstate |ai corresponding eigenvalue a 6= b.
2. Prove the Theorem 1 from lecture notes:
If both of the basis {|a0 i} and {|b0 i} are orthonormalized and complete then there exists
a unitary operator U so that
|b1 i = U |a1 i , |b2 i = U |a2 i , |b3 i = U |a3 i , ... (1)
(Unitary operator: U † U = U U † = 1)
Solution:
The proof has three stages: construction of operator U , proof of property (1) and proof
of unitarity. Construction procedure is rather easy, we would like to build an operator
that projects the basis state |aj i to basis state |bj i:
X
U= |bj i haj | .
j

To show that the property (1) holds, operator U operates on an arbitrary basis state |ak i:
X X
U |ak i = |bj i haj |ak i = |bj i δjk = |bk i
j j

where the orthonormality of basis {|a0 i} plays a role. The unitarity is checked via brute
calculation:
∞
X ∞
X ∞
X ∞
X
† †
UU = |bj i haj | (|bi i hai |) = |bj i haj | |ai i hbi |
j i j i
X X
= = |bj i haj |ai i hbi | = |bj i hbj | = 1.
| {z }
ij j
δij | {z }
completeness of {|b0 i}
3. Consider the spin operators Sx , Sy and Sz in the {|Sz ; ↑i , |Sz ; ↓i} basis
a) Write out the operators Sx , Sy and Sz in the {|Sz ; ↑i , |Sz ; ↓i} basis.
b) Compute the commutators [Sx , Sy ] and [S 2 , Sx ] as well as anticommutator {Sx , Sy }.
c) Let us dene the ladder operators S± = Sx ±iSy . Compute S± |Sz ; ↑i and S± |Sz ; ↓i.
Solution:
Let us rst summarize the {|Sz ; ↑i , |Sz ; ↓i} basis represented with the help eigenstates of
Sx and Sy operators with proper phase choice (see. e.g. J. J. Sakurai, Modern Quantum
Mechanics, p. 28):
1 1 1 1
|Sz ; ↑i = √ |Sx ; ↑i + √ |Sx ; ↓i |Sz ; ↑i = √ |Sy ; ↑i + √ |Sy ; ↓i
2 2 2 2
1 1 i i
|Sz ; ↓i = √ |Sx ; ↑i − √ |Sx ; ↓i |Sz ; ↓i = − √ |Sy ; ↑i + √ |Sy ; ↓i (2)
2 2 2 2
Representation of an operator B in the {|Sz ; ↑i , |Sz ; ↓i} basis
XX XX
B= |Sz ; ji hSz ; j |B| Sz ; ki hSz ; k| = Bjk |Sz ; ji hSz ; k|
j=↑↓ k=↑↓ j=↑↓ k=↑↓

and in matrix representation we use the following convention with the indecies
Bjk = hSz ; j |B| Sz ; ki
   
B↑↑ B↑↓ hSz ; ↑ |B| Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↑ |B| Sz ; ↓i
B= = .
B↓↑ B↓↓ hSz ; ↓ |B| Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↓ |B| Sz ; ↓i
a) Basis representation for operator Sz is after above denitions just the calculation
of matrix elements Bjk :
 
hSz ; ↑ |Sz | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↑ |Sz | Sz ; ↓i
Sz =
hSz ; ↓ |Sz | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↓ |Sz | Sz ; ↓i
   
~ hSz ; ↑ |Sz ; ↑i −hSz ; ↑ |Sz ; ↓i ~ 1 0
= = .
2 hSz ; ↓ |Sz ; ↑i −hSz ; ↓ |Sz ; ↓i 2 0 −1
To do the same for Sx,y we resort to relations (2) and nd out that
~ ~
Sx |Sz ; ↑i = |Sz ; ↓i Sy |Sz ; ↑i = i |Sz ; ↓i
2 2
~ ~
Sx |Sz ; ↓i = |Sz ; ↑i Sy |Sz ; ↓i = −i |Sz ; ↑i
2 2
which shows that
   
hSz ; ↑ |Sx | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↑ |Sx | Sz ; ↓i ~ 0 1
Sx = =
hSz ; ↓ |Sx | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↓ |Sx | Sz ; ↓i 2 1 0
   
hSz ; ↑ |Sy | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↑ |Sy | Sz ; ↓i ~ 0 −i
Sy = = .
hSz ; ↓ |Sy | Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↓ |Sy | Sz ; ↓i 2 i 0
b) As we now have the representations of operators Si in the Sz eigenstate basis we
can use them to calculate the (anti)commutators.
~2
     
0 1 0 −i 0 −i 0 1
[Sx , Sy ] = Sx Sy − Sy Sx = −
4 1 0 i 0 i 0 1 0
= i~Sz

(The general rule goes [Si , Sj ] = i~ijk Sk , where ijk is the Levi-Civita permutation
symbol.)

Then it happens out that Si2 = ~2 /4 for all i = x, y, z , therefore S 2 = Sx2 +Sy2 +Sz2 =
3~2 /4 and it is clear that [S 2 , Sx ] = 3~2 [I, Sx ]/4 = 0. When calculating [Sx , Sy ] one
notices that Sx Sy = −Sy Sx which implies that {Sx , Sy } = 0.
c) Since matricies are handy objects, let us express ladder opertors S± also in the
familiar {|Sz ; ↑i , |Sz ; ↓i} basis: S± = Sx ± iSy .
     
~ 0 1 ~ 0 1 0 1
S+ = + =~
2 1 0 2 −1 0 0 0
     
~ 0 1 ~ 0 −1 0 0
S− = + =~ .
2 1 0 2 1 0 1 0
or
S+ = ~ |Sz ; ↑i hSz ; ↓| S− = ~ |Sz ; ↓i hSz ; ↑| .

and operations to Sz eigenstates result

S+ |Sz ; ↑i = 0 S− |Sz ; ↑i = ~ |Sz ; ↓i
S+ |Sz ; ↓i = ~ |Sz ; ↑i S− |Sz ; ↓i = 0

Now, the physical meaning of the ladder operators can be read. Operator S+ raises
the spin component by ~ and if the spin component cannot be raised further, we
get null state. Similarly, S− lowers the spin component by ~. Both these operators
are non-Hermitian.
4. Prove the Theorem 2 from lecture notes:
If T is a unitary matrix, then the matrices X and T † XT have the same trace and
the same eigenvalues.
Solution:
i) Trace of a matrix X is the sum of its diagonal elements: Tr (X) = i Xii and
P
as an reminder the matrix multiplication expressed in index notation goes
(AB)ij = k Aik Bkj . The unitarity of T has then index expression:
P

X †
TT† = 1 ⇒ Tik Tkj = δij
k
X
†
T T =1 ⇒ Tik† Tkj = δij
k

With these in our mind we are ready to prove the trace invariance:

Tr T † XT =
X XXX
(T † XT )ii = Tij† Xjk Tki


i i j k
XX X
= Xjk Tki Tij†
j
k
| i {z }
δkj

Xkk = Tr (X) .
X
=
k

ii) The matrix X has eigenvalues {a1 , a2 , . . . , an } and corresponding eigenvectors

{|a1 i , |a2 i , . . . , |an i}. By constructing a new set of vectors such that |bj i =
T † |aj i and evaluating

T † XT |bj i = T † XT T † |aj i = T † X |aj i = aj T † |aj i = aj |bj i ,

we observe that |bj i are the eigenvectors of matrix T † XT corresponding the

same eigenvalues {a1 , a2 , . . . , an }. Thus matricies X and T † XT has the same
eigenvalues if T is a unitary matrix.
5. The translation operator for a nite (spatial) displacement is given by
 
i
T (l) = exp − p · l
~

where p is the momentum operator and l the displacement vector.

a) Evaluate [xi , T (l)].
b) How does the expectation value hxi of the position operator change under
the translation?
Solution:
a) As introduced in lectures the eect of a nite spatial displacement by l is
T (l) |xi = |x + li. When evaluating commutator one should remember when
xi is an operator and when a pure number, to distinguish these two cases I use
now notation x̂i for operator and xi for number. Let us introduce arbitrary
state |αi having presentation in conguration space |αi = dx |xi hx|αi
R

[x̂i , T (l)] |αi = x̂i T (l) |αi − T (l)x̂i |αi

Z Z
= x̂i dx |x + li hx|αi − T (l) dx xi |xi hx|αi
Z Z
= dx (xi + li ) |x + li hx|αi − dx xi |x + li hx|αi
Z
= dx li |x + li hx|αi = li T (l) |αi .

Now we say that [x̂i , T (l)] = li T (l), which is an operator identity since it
holds for an arbitrary state. Furthermore, we know by generalising the result
that x̂T (l) − T (l)x̂ = lT (l) or x̂T (l) = T (l)(l + x̂).
b) Before the translation, the expectation value of position operator x̂ for an
arbitrary state is hxi = hα |x̂| αi and after the translation
hαl |x̂| αl i = α T † (l)x̂T (l) α = α T † (l)T (l)(l + x̂) α

  
  

= hα |l + x̂| αi
= l + hxi,

which is not any big surprise.