Solutions for Assignment 02 of PHY4804 in 2011

Exercise 14.3
Show that in the Heisenberg picture the density operator for the state |,
= |(0)(0)| = |

| (1)
satises the equations
i h

t
= i hT

(t, 0)

t
T(t, 0) =
_

H,
_
and
d
dt
= 0 (2)
The rst relation in eqn.(2) follows from eqn.(14.31) by multiplying with i h. To derive
the equality to the commutator
_

H,
_
, we note that H and T(t, 0) commute. Inserting
unity written as T(t, 0)T

(t, 0) and using /t =

H = T

(t, 0)HT(t, 0) (3)

m
2 h
(x x
0
)
2
_
(5)
the state at time t is
(x, t) = N exp
_

m
2 h
(x x
0
)
2
(6)
i
_

2
t +
m
h
x
0
x sin t
m
4 h
x
2
0
sin 2t
__
Show that |(x, t)|
2
oscillates without any change of shape.
1
In principle the exercise can be answered using the propagator dened in eqn.(15.59).
The integration required is however rather tedious. It is more convenient to use the
fact that the coherent states dened by eqn.(10.103) have close relationship to the dis-
placed Gaussian, i.e.| = e

||
2
2
exp
_
a

_
|0 and (x, 0) = | for =
_
m
2 h
x
0
as
per eqn.(10.122). According to eqn.(15.63) (t) is then given by exp (it/2) |

with

= e
it
. Therefore, again using (10.122) we obtain
(x, t) = N exp
_
i

2
t
_
exp
_

m
2 h
[x (cos t i sin t)x
0
]
2
_
= exp
_

m
2 h
(x x
0
)
2
(7)
i
_

2
t +
m
h
x
0
x sin t
m
4 h
x
2
0
sin 2t
__
q.e.d. The shape of |(x, t)|
2
does not change since the imaginary part of the exponent
does not inuence the absolute value of .
[13]
Exercise 15.19
Show that the state of two particles with sharp momenta p
1
and p
2
, corresponding to the
plane wave function
(r
1
, r
2
) = exp
_
i
h
p
1
r
1
_
exp
_
i
h
p
2
r
2
_
(8)
is also separable when it is transformed by use of the relative and center-of-mass coordi-
nates and momenta into (r,

R) .
From the equations
r = r
1
r
2
,

R =
m
1
M
r
1
+
m
2
M
r
2
,
p =
m
2
M
p
1

m
1
M
p
2
,

P = p
1
+ p
2
,
where M = m
1
+ m
2
, it follows that
r
1
=

R +
m
2
M
r ,
r
2
=

R
m
1
M
r ,
2
p
1
=
m
2
M

P p ,
p
2
=
m
1
M

P + p .
Substituting these formulae into Eq.(8), we obtain
(r,

R) = exp
_
i
h

P

R
_
exp
_
i
h
p r
_
.
[15]
Exercise 15.25
If an ensemble E consists of an equal-probability mixture of two nonorthogonal (but nor-
malized) states |
1
and |
2
with overlap C =
1
|
2
, evaluate the Shannon mixing
entropy H(E) and the von Neumann entropy, S(). Compare the latter with the former
as |C| varies between 0 and 1. What happens as C 0?
The density operator describing this ensemble, is
= p
1
|
1

1
| + p
2
|
2

2
| ,
where p
1
= p
2
= 1/2. The Shannon mixing entropy is dened as
H(E) =
N

i=1
p
i
ln p
i
,
which gives a C-independent value
H(E) = ln 2 nat .
The von Neumann entropy is dened as
S() =
N

i=1
p
i
ln p
i
,
where p
i
are the eigenvalues of the operator . Therefore, in order to calculate S(), we
need to know p
i
. They can be found as follows (see Exercise 15.24).
Let us look for eigenfunctions of the operator in the form
| = c
1
|
1
+ c
2
|
2
. (9)
With this ansatz, the eigenvalue equation
| = p| ,
3
i. e.
(p
1
|
1

1
| + p
2
|
2

2
|) (c
1
|
1
+ c
2
|
2
) = p (c
1
|
1
+ c
2
|
2
) ,
takes the following form
c
1
(p
1
|
1
+ p
2
C

|
2
) + c
2
(p
1
C|
1
+ p
2
|
2
) = pc
1
|
1
+ pc
2
|
2
,
where C =
1
|
2
. Multiplying this equation from the left by
1
| and
2
|, we obtain
the following system of linear equations determining the unknown coecients c
1
and c
2
,
_
_
_
c
1
(p
1
+ p
2
|C|
2
p) + c
2
(p
1
+ p
2
p) C = 0 ,
c
1
(p
1
+ p
2
p) C

+ c
2
(p
1
|C|
2
+ p
2
p) = 0 .
(10)
This system is degenerate (see any textbook on linear algebra), and therefore has a non-
trivial solution if and only if its determinant is zero, i.e.
_
p
1
+ p
2
|C|
2
p
_ _
p
1
|C|
2
+ p
2
p
_
(p
1
+ p
2
p) (p
1
+ p
2
p) |C|
2
= 0 ,
which is a quadratic equation for the eigenvalue p. Making simple algebraic rearrange-
ments in this equation, we obtain
p
2
(1 |C|
2
) p(p
1
+ p
2
)(1 |C|
2
) + p
1
p
2
(1 |C|
2
)
2
= 0 .
The coecients p
1
and p
2
represent the respective probabilities for the quantum system
to be in the pure states |
1
and |
2
, hence
p
1
+ p
2
= 1 .
The quadratic equation reduces, therefore, to
p
2
p + p
1
p
2
(1 |C|
2
) = 0 ,
and has the solutions
p
1,2
=
1
_
1 4p
1
p
2
(1 |C|
2
)
2
.
In the particular case of p
1
= p
2
= 1/2, we obtain
p
1,2
=
1 |C|
2
.
Therefore the von Neumann entropy is
S() = p
1
ln p
1
p
2
ln p
2
=
1 + |C|
2
ln
1 + |C|
2

1 |C|
2
ln
1 |C|
2
= ln 2
_
1 + |C|
2
ln(1 + |C|) +
1 |C|
2
ln(1 |C|)
_
. (11)
4
It is easy to see that
S()
C0
ln 2 = H(E) .
When C 1, the rst term in square brackets of Eq. (11) gives ln 2 while the second
term vanishes because the linear function (1 |C|) vanishes faster than the logarithm
ln(1 |C|) diverges. As a result, we have
S()
C1
0 .
Since the function
f(x)
1 + x
2
ln(1 + x) +
1 x
2
ln(1 x)
cannot have zeros on the interval 0 < x < 1 (because its derivative is positive), we
conclude that the square bracket in Eq.(11) is always positive and thus
S() < H(E) for 0 < |C| < 1 .
[20]
Problem 14.4
A linear harmonic oscillator in its ground state is exposed to a spatially constant force
which at t = 0 is suddenly removed. Compute the transition probabilities to the excited
states of the oscillator. Use the generating function for Hermite polynomials to obtain a
general formula. How much energy is transferred?
The situation in the problem is the following: The particle is in the ground state corre-
sponding to a potential which is the sum of a harmonic oscillator potential and a linear
force term characterized by F. Thus
V (x) =
1
2
m
2
x
2
Fx (12)
Completing the square this can be written as
V (x) =
1
2
m
2
_
x
F
m
2
_
2

F
2
2m
2
(13)
Dropping the last term, which does not aect the wave functions but only the energies
the potential is therefore shifted by x
0
= F/m
2
to the right and the ground state for
this potential is obviously the shifted ground state discussed in the solution to exercise
15.11. If the force falls away, the new eigen functions are of those unshifted oscillator. To
obtain the expansion coecients of the excited states we need to evaluate
c
n
=
_

n
(x)
_
m
h
_1
4
exp
_

m
2 h
(x x
0
)
2
_
dx . (14)
5
Substituting eqn.(5.39) we obtain
c
n
=
_
2

n
2
(n!)
1/2
_
m
h
_1
4
exp
_

m
2 h
x
2
_
H
n
__
m
h
x
__
m
h
_1
4
exp
_

m
2 h
(x x
0
)
2
_
dx .
(15)
Making the variable substitution =
_
m
h
x we obtain
c
n
= 2

n
2
(n!)
1/2
1

_
exp
_

1
2

2
_
H
n
() exp
_

1
2
(
0
)
2
_
d , (16)
with
0
= Fd/ h and d =
_
h
m
.
Using eqn.(5.35) and simplifying the resulting product of three exponentials yields
c
n
= (1)
n
2

n
2
(n!)
1/2
1

exp
_

1
2

2
0
__
d exp (
0
)
d
n
d
n
exp
_

2
_
. (17)
n-fold integration by parts nally gives
c
n
= 2

n
2
(n!)
1/2
1

exp
_

1
2

2
0
_

n
0
_
d exp (
0
) exp
_

2
_
= 2

n
2
(n!)
1/2
exp
_

1
4

2
0
_

n
0
.
(18)
The normalization condition also works out as

n=0
d
2
n
= exp
_

1
2

2
0
_

n=0
1
n!
_

2
0
2
_
n
= 1 (19)
Thus the transition probabilty to the n-th excited state is given by
P
n
= d
2
n
=
1
2
n
n!
exp
_

1
2

2
0
_

2n
0
. (20)
The energy transfer is then given by the dierence of expectation values, where we now
take into account the term quadratic in F from eqn.(13), resulting in
E = h exp
_

2
0
/2
_

n=0
n
n!
_

2
0
2
_
n

F
2
2m
2
= h exp
_

2
0
/2
_

n=1
1
(n 1)!
_

2
0
2
_
n

F
2
2m
2
(21)
=
1
2

2
0
h
F
2
2m
2
= 0
Thus the expectation value of the energy transfer is in fact zero!
[20]
6