PHY-314 QUANTUM MECHANICS-I

Assignment 2

1. Do functions that vanish at the end points x = 0 and x = L form a vector space? How about
periodic functions obeying f (0) = f (L)?

2. Are these three matrices linearly independent?

     
0 1 1 1 −2 −1
, ,
0 0 0 1 0 −2

3. Are the following sets of functions linearly independent or dependent?

(a) 4ex , ex , 5ex

(b) cos x, eix , 3 sin x
(c) 7, x2 , 9x4 , e−x

4. Consider the following four matrices:

       
1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
, , ,
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

(a) Do these matrices form a vector space?

(b) What is the dimension of the vector space if they do so?

5. Find a suitable basis for the linear vector space of 2 × 2 Hermitian matrices over the field R.
Also, find an appropriate basis for the vector space of 2 × 2 anti-Hermitian matrices over the
field R. What are the dimensions of these two vector spaces?

6. Use the Gram-Schmidt process to construct an orthonormal basis set from the following basis:
     
3 0 0
(a) 0 , 1 , 2
    
0 2 5
     
1 0 3
(b)  2  ,  1  , −7
−1 −1 1
7. Consider the following states:

|Ψ⟩ = 3|0⟩ + 2i|1⟩; |Φ⟩ = |0⟩ + 5|1⟩

where |0⟩ and |1⟩ are orthonormal to each other. Show that these states obey Cauchy-Schwarz
and triangle inequalities.

8. A 2 × 2 matrix U = ei(⃗n.⃗σ)θ/2 , represents rotation about ⃗n (unit vector in 3D) through an

angle θ. The σ’s are the Pauli matrices.

(a) Check whether U is unitary or not.

(b) Find the determinant of the matrix U .
(c) Find the eigenvalues of the matrix U and ⃗σ .

1
 PHY-314

9. Can you write the Taylor expansion of f (x + a) in terms of an operator times f (x) i.e
f (x + a) = Of
e (x)?

10. Let A and B be hermitian matrices. Show that A and B can be simultaneously diagonalized
if and only if they commute, i.e. [A, B] = 0 or AB = BA.

11. Let  and B̂ be linear operators and let Ĉ denote their commutator, i.e. Ĉ = [Â, B̂]

(a) Show that Ĉ is a linear operator.

(b) Suppose  and B̂ share a common eigenfunction, ϕab , then what will be Ĉϕab ?
(c) Suppose  and B̂ commute. Are all eigenfunctions of  necessarily also eigenfunctions
of B̂? If so, explain why; if not, give a simple counterexample.

12. (a) Find eλ B̂e−λ , where λ is a scalar parameter (real or complex).
h i
(b) Find Â, Bˆn .
h i
(c) Find Â, b , b is a scalar.
 
0 0 −1
x Â
(d) Find e , where  = 0  1 0
−1 0 0
d
13. Show that the operator  = i(X̂ 2 + 1) + iX̂ is Hermitian. (X̂ is the position operator).
dx
d2
14. Find the eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions of the operator  = − 2 ; restrict the search
dx
for the eigenfunctions to those complex functions that vanish everywhere except in the region
0 < x < a.
   
0 1 0 1 0 0
15. Consider the matrices A = 1 0 1 and B = 0 0 0  .
0 1 0 0 0 −1

(a) Find the eigenvalues and the normalized eigenvectors of A and B. Denote them by
|a1 ⟩, |a2 ⟩, |a3 ⟩ and |b1 ⟩, |b2 ⟩, |b3 ⟩.
(b) Are there any degenerate eigenvalues?
(c) Show that each set of eigenvectors forms an orthonormal and complete basis.
(d) Find the matrix U of the transformation from the basis |a⟩ to |b⟩. Show that U −1 = U † .

16. Prove [AB, CD] = −AC{D, B} + A{C, B}D − C{D, A}B + {C, A}DB.

17. The Hamiltonian operator for a two-state system is given by H = a(|1⟩⟨1| − |2⟩⟨2| + |1⟩⟨2| +
|2⟩⟨1|) where a is a number with the dimension of energy. Find the energy eigenvalues and
the corresponding energy eigenkets.

18. Consider the space of polynomials of degree less than or equal to n. Any polynomial p(x) =
Xn
ai xi , can be written as a vector (a0 , a1 , ..., an ), where ai ’s are some complex numbers. This
i=0

2
 PHY-314

is the representation of p(x) in the basis x0 , x1 , ..., xn . What is the matrix representation


d
of the operator in this basis?
dx
h i
19. Given that X̂, P̂ = iℏ, evaluate the following commutators:
h i
(a) X̂ 2 , P̂
h i
(b) X̂, P̂ 2
h i
(c) X̂, P̂ n
h i
(d) eiX̂ , P̂
 
2 i 0
20. Consider a particle whose Hamiltonian matrix is H = −i 1 1
0 1 0

(a) Find the matrix corresponding to the operator obtained from the ket-bra product of the
eigenvector, corresponding to eigenvalue 1 (P̂ = |a1 ⟩⟨a1 |, where |a1 ⟩ is the eigenvector
of H with Ĥ|a1 ⟩ = |a1 ⟩)
(b) Is P̂ a projection operator?
h i
(c) Calculate the commutator P̂ , Ĥ firstly by using commutator algebra and then by using
matrix products.