PHY 314: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Varsha 2014

Lecture 15
Anil Shaji
School of Physics, IISER Thiruvananthapuram
The central potential: Angular equation

We considered the three dimensional version of the time independent Schrodinger equation for
a central potential, V (r), that is a function of only the radial coordinate, r, and broke it down into
an equation in the variable r an angular equation using the technique of separation of variables.
We will set aside the equation in r,



2mr2 
1 d
2 dR(r)
r

V
(r)

E
= l(l + 1),
R(r) dr
dr
~2
for later because we have not specified what exactly V (r) is. We will first look at the angular
equation instead

I.

THE ANGULAR EQUATION

The angular equation is



Y (, )
1 2 Y (, )
1
sin
+
= l(l + 1) Y (, ).
sin

2
sin2
We can write this equation as




1

1 2
sin
+
Y (, ) = l(l + 1) Y (, ).
sin

sin2 2

(1)

(2)

Before we try to solve the angular equation we notice that this is again an eigenvalue equation
of the form
L, Y (, ) = l(l + 1)Y (, ),
where
L,

1
=
sin

sin


+

1 2
sin2 2

Let us take a brief diversion and investigate what this operator is. We turn to classical mechanics
and the classical central force problem for hints as to what this operator might be. The stable
configurations of a classical particle in a central potential are closed orbits around the origin. These
orbits are the analogue of the quantum stationary states that we are interested in. Each orbit is
in turn characterized by its radius (or semi-major and semi-minor axes in case of elliptical orbits)
and the orientation of the plane of the orbit. The radius, in turn, depends on the magnitude of

2
the angular momentum and the orientation is fixed by the direction of the angular momentum of
the particle.
Taking a cue from classical mechanics, one suspects after looking at the radial and angular
equations, that the separation constant, l(l + 1) connecting the two equations has something to do
with angular momentum. So we guess that the operator L, has something to do with angular
momentum.

A.

The angular momentum operator

In classical mechanics, the angular momentum is

~ = ~r p~,
L
In quantum mechanics the variables ~r and p~ are replaced by the operators r
r and i~ respectively.
In spherical polar coordinates,
= r

1
1
+
+
r
r sin

we get
Using r r = 0, r = and r = ,


1

.
L = i~

sin
Writing the unit vectors, and in cartesian coordinates as
= (cos cos )i + (cos sin )j cos k
= (sin )i + (cos )j,
we get



L = i~ ( sin i + cos j)
(cos cos i + cos sin j cos k)

sin
, Collecting terms together we get



Lx = i~ sin
+ cos cot




+ sin cot
Ly = i~ cos

Lz = i~ .

(3)

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We also have
2
2

sin

cos

cot

+
2
sin

cos

cot

+ cos2 cot
2

2
sin cos cot
+ cos2 cot2 2


2
2

L2y = ~2 cos2 2 + sin cos cot2

2 sin cos cot
+ sin2 cot


2

2
2
+ sin cos cot
+ sin cot 2

L2z = ~2 2 .

L2x

= ~

sin2

Adding the three equations together, we get





1

1 2
2
2
L = ~
sin
+
.
sin

sin2 2

(4)

So we identify
L, =

1 2
L
~2

and we find that Y (, ) are actually eigenfunctions of the L2 operator with eigenvalues l(l + 1)~2 .

B.

The Azimuthal and magnetic quantum numbers

It should be noted that the angular equation does not depend on the potential. This makes it
a common feature for all central potential problems irrespective of the details of the potential. So
one needs to solve it only once and the Y (, ) functions, once found, may be applied to all such
problems.
Coming back to the equation, we have to solve,


Y (, )
1 2 Y (, )
1
sin
+
= l(l + 1) Y (, ),
sin

2
sin2
we can use separation of variables again to write
Y (, ) = ()().
Substituting into the angular equation and dividing through by , we get


sin

1 2
sin
+ l(l + 1) sin2 +
= 0.

2
This leads to two equations,
sin

sin

+ l(l + 1) sin2 = m2
1 2
= m2
2

(5)

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The second equation is easy to solve and we get
() = eim .
We let m be both positive and negative to account for the fact that eim is also a solution of the
equation for . We note two things about the stationary state solutions of the central potential
problem at this stage. First of all, the probability density ||2 has no dependence. Secondly
since we expect the wave function to be continuous and hence to come back to its initial value
when is increased by 2, i.e.
( + 2) = (),
we find that m has to be an integer:
m = 0, 1, 2, . . .
Noticing that the equation for can be rewritten as
L2z () = ~2 m2 (),
we recognize that ~m are the eigenvalues of the operator corresponding to the z component of the
angular momentum of the system. So we see again the quantization of the components of angular
momentum (and spin) in units of ~. We also now understand that it comes from the requirement
that we need the wave function to come back to itself when increased by 2.

1.

The equation for

We now have to solve the equation



m2
2 cos
+
+ l(l + 1)
= 0.
d2
sin
sin2

(6)

Trigonometric functions in a differential equation makes it rather hard to see what the solutions
of the equation might be. So it is useful to change variables to
cos = x;

p
x
= sin = 1 x2 .

So we have
p

x
=

= 1 x2

x
x
and
2
2

2
=
(1

x
)
x
.
2
2

x
x

Substituting these results into Eq. (6), we obtain



2

m2
2
(1 x ) 2 2x
+ l(l + 1)
=0
x
x
1 x2

(7)

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Before looking at the full equation, let us first look at the simpler case of m = 0, this is the
Legendre differential equation and its solutions are the Legendre polynomials, Pl (x). The Legendre
polynomials can be obtained from the Rodriguez formula,
Pl (x) =

1 dl
(x2 1)l .
2l l! dxl

(8)

The first few Legendre polynomials are

P0 (x) = 1
P1 (x) = x
1
P2 (x) = (3x2 1)
2
1
P3 (x) = (5x3 3x)
2
Things we notice about the Legendre polynomials are
1. The index l has to be an integer, l = 0, 1, 2 . . . for the Rodriguez formula to work. We
already know that the equation for is really the eigenvalue equation for the operator L2
and ~2 l(l + 1) is the eigenvalue of the L2 operator. The fact that l has to be an integer
indicates quantization of the angular momentum
2. If the index l is odd, then the polynomial is odd and if l is even then the polynomial is even
3. The Legendre polynomials are (L2 ) orthogonal in the interval 1 x 1:
Z 1
2
ll0
dx Pl (x)Pl0 (x) =
2l + 1
1
The first few Legendre polynomials are plotted in Fig. 1
When m 6= 0, the solutions of the equation for are the associated Legendre functions, Plm (x).
The associated Legendre functions are given by the Rodriguez formula,
d|m|
Pl (x).
(9)
dx|m|
Unlike the Legendre polynomials, the associated Legendre functions are not, in general, polynomials

because for odd values of m, they carry a factor of 1 x2 (only integer powers of x can appear in a

polynomial in x). But for our case, what we really want is Plm (cos ) and since 1 cos2 = sin ,
we always have a polynomial in cos multiplied, in some cases, by sin . A few of the associated
Legendre functions, Plm (cos ) are listed below
Plm (x) = (1)m (1 x2 )|m|/2

P00 = 1
P10 = cos
P11 = sin
1
P20 = (3 cos2 1)
2
P21 = 3 sin cos
P22 = 3 sin2

FIG. 1: From www.wikipedia.org

We note that the Rodriguez formula for the associated Legendre functions involves an mth
derivative with respect to x of Pl (x). Since Pl (x) is a polynomial of degree, l, Plm (x) = 0 for m > l.
We have already seen that m has to be a whole number. The equation for additionally tells us
that
m = 0, 1, 2, . . . , l.
The associated Legendre functions are not the only possible solutions for the equation for .
The equation is a second order differential equation and there is a completely independent set of
solutions. These solutions are not considered since they are not square integrable functions of
(like tan ).
To make a connection to something we have previously discussed, the quantization of total
angular momentum (L2 ) and its components (Lz ) in units of ~ is something we have already encountered in the context of the Stern-Gerlach experiment. In that case, the total (spin) angular
momentum (l~) was ~/2 and its components, say Sz had values ~m = ~/2. In the present discussion, we have l limited to integer values like 0, 1, . . .. Why half integer spin angular momentum
appears in nature in addition to the integer valued angular momentum discussed here is beyond
the scope of this course.

2.

Normalization

The angular equation does not involve the potential and so is common to all central potential
problems. This universality also motivates us to normalize the solutions of the angular equation
independently even if, strictly speaking, all normalization factors can be absorbed into the solution
of the radial equation.

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The volume element in spherical polar coordinates is
d3~r = r2 sin dr d d
and we require
Z

d3~r|(r, , )|2 =

dr r2 |R(r)|2

Z
d

d sin |Plm (cos )|2 = 1.

As mentioned above, we choose to normalize such that

Z
2
dr r2 |R(r)|2 = 1
|A|
0
Z
Z 2
2
d
d sin |Plm (cos )|2 = 1,
|B|
0

where A and B are normalization factors. The normalized solutions of the angular equation are
called spherical harmonics and they are given by
s
2l + 1 (l |m|) im m
Ylm (, ) = 
(10)
e Pl (cos ),
4 (l + |m|)
where
(
=

(1)m m 0
1
m0

A few spherical harmonics are shown in Fig. 2

FIG. 2:
Surfaces of constant value
en.citizendium.org/wiki/Spherical harmonics)

for

few

of

the

spherical

harmonics

(From