Chapter 3: Q14P (page 113)
Prove the famous "(your name) uncertainty principle," relating the uncertainty in position to the uncertainty in energy:
For stationary states this doesn't tell you much-why not?
Short Answer
The uncertainty principle is
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Chapter 3: Q14P (page 113)
Prove the famous "(your name) uncertainty principle," relating the uncertainty in position to the uncertainty in energy:
For stationary states this doesn't tell you much-why not?
The uncertainty principle is
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Consider the operator , where (as in Example 3.1) is the azimuthal angle in polar coordinates, and the functions are subject to Equation 3.26. Is Hermitian? Find its eigenfunctions and eigenvalues. What is the spectrum of ? Is the spectrum degenerate?
(a) For what range of is the function in Hilbert space, on the interval ? Assume is real, but not necessarily positive.
(b) For the specific case , is in this Hilbert space? What about? How about ?
Show that the energy-time uncertainty principle reduces to the "your name" uncertainty principle (Problem 3.14), when the observable in question is x.
(a) Write down the time-dependent "Schrödinger equation" in momentum space, for a free particle, and solve it. Answer:
(b) Find role="math" localid="1656051039815" for the traveling gaussian wave packet (Problem 2.43), and construct for this case. Also construct , and note that it is independent of time.
(c) Calculaterole="math" localid="1656051188971" androle="math" localid="1656051181044" by evaluating the appropriate integrals involving, and compare your answers to Problem 2.43.
(d) Show thatrole="math" localid="1656051421703" (where the subscript denotes the stationary gaussian), and comment on this result.
Show that two noncommuting operators cannot have a complete set of common eigenfunctions. Hint: Show that if and have a complete set of common eigenfunctions, then for any function in Hilbert space.
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