Chapter 9: Q6P (page 345)
Calculate , to second order, for a time-independent perturbation in Problem 9.2. Compare your answer with the exact result.
Short Answer
The formula agree up to second order.
/*! This file is auto-generated */ .wp-block-button__link{color:#fff;background-color:#32373c;border-radius:9999px;box-shadow:none;text-decoration:none;padding:calc(.667em + 2px) calc(1.333em + 2px);font-size:1.125em}.wp-block-file__button{background:#32373c;color:#fff;text-decoration:none}
Learning Materials
Features
Discover
Chapter 9: Q6P (page 345)
Calculate , to second order, for a time-independent perturbation in Problem 9.2. Compare your answer with the exact result.
The formula agree up to second order.
All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.
Get started for free
In Equation 9.31 assumed that the atom is so small (in comparison to the wavelength of light) that spatial variations in the field can be ignored. The true electric field would be
If the atom is centered at the origin, then over the relevant volume, so and that's why we could afford to drop this term. Suppose we keep the first-order correction:
The first term gives rise to the allowed (electric dipole) transitions we considered in the text; the second leads to so-called forbidden (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole) transitions (higher powers of lead to even more "forbidden" transitions, associated with higher multipole moments).
(a) Obtain the spontaneous emission rate for forbidden transitions (don't bother to average over polarization and propagation directions, though this should really be done to complete the calculation). Answer:role="math" localid="1659008133999"
(b) Show that for a one-dimensional oscillator the forbidden transitions go from level to levelrole="math" localid="1659008239387" and the transition rate (suitably averaged over ) is
(Note: Here is the frequency of the photon, not the oscillator.) Find the ratio of the "forbidden" rate to the "allowed" rate, and comment on the terminology.
(c) Show that the transition in hydrogen is not possible even by a "forbidden" transition. (As it turns out, this is true for all the higher multipoles as well; the dominant decay is in fact by two-photon emission, and the lifetime it is about a tenth of a second
An electron in the state of hydrogen decays by a sequence of (electric dipole) transitions to the ground state.
(a) What decay routes are open to it? Specify them in the following way:
(b) If you had a bottle full of atoms in this state, what fraction of them would decay via each route?
(c) What is the lifetime of this state? Hint: Once it鈥檚 made the first transition, it鈥檚 no longer in the state |300\rangle鈭300鉄, so only the first step in each sequence is relevant in computing the lifetime.
Suppose the perturbation takes the form of a delta function (in time):
;
Assume thatif and
find and check that . What is the net probability that a transition occurs? Hint: You might want to treat the delta function as the limit of a sequence of rectangles.
Answer:
A particle starts out (at time t=0 ) in the Nth state of the infinite square well. Now the 鈥渇loor鈥 of the well rises temporarily (maybe water leaks in, and then drains out again), so that the potential inside is uniform but time dependent:.
(a) Solve for the exact , using Equation 11.116, and show that the wave function changes phase, but no transitions occur. Find the phase change, role="math" localid="1658378247097" , in terms of the function
(b) Analyze the same problem in first-order perturbation theory, and compare your answers. Compare your answers.
Comment: The same result holds whenever the perturbation simply adds a constant (constant in x, that is, not in to the potential; it has nothing to do with the infinite square well, as such. Compare Problem 1.8.
Suppose you don鈥檛 assume
(a) Find and in first-order perturbation theory, for the case
.show that , to first order in .
(b) There is a nicer way to handle this problem. Let
.
Show that
where
So the equations for are identical in structure to Equation 11.17 (with an extra
(c) Use the method in part (b) to obtain in first-order
perturbation theory, and compare your answer to (a). Comment on any discrepancies.
What do you think about this solution?
We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.