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    Review of Lecture 5 The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

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    Beauponte Pouky Mezonlin
    The document summarizes key concepts about the quantum harmonic oscillator from the analytic solution method. Step 1) The time-independent Schrodinger equation is solved by changing variables to a dimensionless coordinate ξ and energy parameter K. Step 2) The solution is separated into a power series times an exponential term. Step 3) Applying the differential equation generates a recursion formula for the power series coefficients. Step 4) The power series must be truncated to ensure normalizable solutions, resulting in quantized energy levels En proportional to n + 1/2, where n is a non-negative integer. Step 5) The normalized wavefunctions ψn(x) are expressed in terms

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    Review of Lecture 5 The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

    Uploaded by

    Beauponte Pouky Mezonlin
    22 views10 pages
    The document summarizes key concepts about the quantum harmonic oscillator from the analytic solution method. Step 1) The time-independent Schrodinger equation is solved by changing variables to a dimensionless coordinate ξ and energy parameter K. Step 2) The solution is separated into a power series times an exponential term. Step 3) Applying the differential equation generates a recursion formula for the power series coefficients. Step 4) The power series must be truncated to ensure normalizable solutions, resulting in quantized energy levels En proportional to n + 1/2, where n is a non-negative integer. Step 5) The normalized wavefunctions ψn(x) are expressed in terms

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    Lecture 06

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    The document summarizes key concepts about the quantum harmonic oscillator from the analytic solution method. Step 1) The time-independent Schrodinger equation is solved by changing variables to a dimensionless coordinate ξ and energy parameter K. Step 2) The solution is separated into a power series times an exponential term. Step 3) Applying the differential equation generates a recursion formula for the power series coefficients. Step 4) The power series must be truncated to ensure normalizable solutions, resulting in quantized energy levels En proportional to n + 1/2, where n is a non-negative integer. Step 5) The normalized wavefunctions ψn(x) are expressed in terms

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    22 views10 pages

    Review of Lecture 5 The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

    Uploaded by

    Beauponte Pouky Mezonlin
    The document summarizes key concepts about the quantum harmonic oscillator from the analytic solution method. Step 1) The time-independent Schrodinger equation is solved by changing variables to a dimensionless coordinate ξ and energy parameter K. Step 2) The solution is separated into a power series times an exponential term. Step 3) Applying the differential equation generates a recursion formula for the power series coefficients. Step 4) The power series must be truncated to ensure normalizable solutions, resulting in quantized energy levels En proportional to n + 1/2, where n is a non-negative integer. Step 5) The normalized wavefunctions ψn(x) are expressed in terms

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    Review of Lecture 5 The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator:

    '

    Potential:

    1 V (x) = m 2 x2 2

    The ladder operators: Raising operator: 1 a+ = (ip + m x) 2m h Lowering operator: 1 a = (ip + m x) 2m h Denition of commutator: [A, B] = AB BA Canonical commutation relation: [x, p] = ih The ground (lowest) solution of the time-independent Schrdinger equation for the harmonic oscillator is: 0 (x) = m 1/4 m x2 h e 2 h 1 E0 = h 2

    To nd all other functions we can use n (x) = An (a+ )n 0 (x). The possible energies are: En = n +
    &

    1 h 2

    Exercise 5
    Find the rst excited state of the harmonic oscillator. Useful integrals:
    0

    x2n ex
    0

    2 /a2

    dx =

    (2n)! a n! 2 dx =

    2n+1

    x2n+1 ex

    2 /a2

    n! 2n+2 a 2

    40

    You can also get the normalization algebraically using

    Then,

    Therefore, the normalization constant An is

    Other useful formulas:

    41

    The Harmonic Oscillator: The Analytic Method


    We now solve the Schrdinger equation for the harmonic oscillator directly:

    Change variables for convenience:

    Therefore, we look for solutions in the form

    42

    We look for solutions in the form of a power series

    The coefcient of each power of must vanish:

    43

    Problem: not all solutions are normalizable

    44

    We have recovered our previous result that was obtained using the algebraic method! Note: the condition above will terminate either odd or even power series; the other must be zero from the start. How do we generate the wave functions?

    45

    Apart from the overall factor (a0 or a1 ) the polynomials hn ( ) are the so-called Hermite polynomials Hn ( ). By tradition, the arbitrary multiplicative factor is chosen so that the coefcient of the highest power of is 2n . With this convention, the normalized stationary states for the harmonic oscillator are

    Summary The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator: The Analytic Method


    Our mission: Solve
    '

    h 2 d2 1 + m 2 x2 = E 2m dx2 2

    (1)
    $

    Step 1: Change variables m x h 2E K h (2)


    %

    Resulting equation: d2 = ( 2 K ) d 2
    &

    46

    '

    Step 2: Determine the solution for and separate out the resulting 2 function e /2 . 2 ( ) = h( )e /2 Resulting equation: dh d2h 2 + (K 1)h = 0 2 d d
    & '

    (3)
    % $

    Step 3: Look for solutions of this equation (Equation 3) in the form of a power series: h( ) = a0 + a1 + a2 2 + . . . = Resulting equation: Recursion formula a j+2 =
    & '
    j=0

    a j j

    (2 j + 1 K ) aj ( j + 1)( j + 2)

    (4)
    % $

    Step 4: Need to truncate

    j=0

    a j j somewhere to ensure that all solutions are


    an+2 = 0

    normalizable. Thus the power series must terminate, i.e.

    for some n = jmax . Resulting equation: K = 2n + 1 1 h En = n + , n = 0, 1, 2, . . . 2


    & ' % $

    Step 5: Put it all together and generate the wave functions n (x) =
    &

    m h

    1/4

    2 1 Hn ( )e /2 2n n!

    where Hn are Hermite polynomials.

    As expected, we get the same result as before using a operators.

    47

    Note that the probability of nding the particle outside of the classically allowed regions is not zero. The potential energy curve represents the classically-allowed maximum displacement of the oscillator. All the wave functions extend beyond the curve.
    1 2 2 2 Classically, the energy of the oscillator is E = 1 2 Ka = 2 m a , where a is the amplitude.

    Only for large n do we see some resemblance to the classical case:

    Computer simulation: http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html, 1D Quantum mechanics applet, Harmonic oscillator

    48

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