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3 The Operators of Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Mechanics for Engineers © Leon van Dommelen

Next: 3.4 The Orthodox Statistical Interpretation

3.3 The Operators of Quantum Mechanics

The numerical quantities that the old Newtonian physics uses, (position, momen-
tum, energy, ...), are just "shadows" of what really describes nature: operators.
The operators described in this section are the key to quantum mechanics.

As the first example, while a mathematically precise value of the position of a

particle never exists, instead there is an -position operator . It turns the wave
function into :

(3.3)

The operators and are defined similarly as .

Instead of a linear momentum , there is an -momentum operator

(3.4)

that turns into its -derivative:

(3.5)

The constant is called “Planck's constant.” (Or rather, it is Planck's original con-
stant divided by .) If it would have been zero, all these troubles with quantum
mechanics would not occur. The blobs would become points. Unfortunately, is
very small, but nonzero. It is about 10 kg m /s.

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The factor in makes it a Hermitian operator (a proof of that is in derivation

{D.9}). All operators reflecting macroscopic physical quantities are Hermitian.

The operators and are defined similarly as :

(3.6)

The kinetic energy operator is:

(3.7)

Its shadow is the Newtonian notion that the kinetic energy equals:

This is an example of the “Newtonian analogy”: the relationships between the dif-
ferent operators in quantum mechanics are in general the same as those be-
tween the corresponding numerical values in Newtonian physics. But since the
momentum operators are gradients, the actual kinetic energy operator is, from the
momentum operators above:

(3.8)

Mathematicians call the set of second order derivative operators in the kinetic en-
ergy operator the "Laplacian", and indicate it by :

(3.9)

In those terms, the kinetic energy operator can be written more concisely as:

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(3.10)

Following the Newtonian analogy once more, the total energy operator, indicated
by , is the the sum of the kinetic energy operator above and the potential en-
ergy operator :

(3.11)

This total energy operator is called the Hamiltonian and it is very important. Its
eigenvalues are indicated by (for energy), for example , , , ...with:

(3.12)

where is eigenfunction number of the Hamiltonian.

It is seen later that in many cases a more elaborate numbering of the eigenvalues
and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian is desirable instead of using a single counter
. For example, for the electron of the hydrogen atom, there is more than one
eigenfunction for each different eigenvalue , and additional counters and
are used to distinguish them. It is usually best to solve the eigenvalue problem
first and decide on how to number the solutions afterwards.

(It is also important to remember that in the literature, the Hamiltonian eigenvalue
problem is commonly referred to as the "time-independent Schrödinger equation."
However, this book prefers to reserve the term Schrödinger equation for the un-
steady evolution of the wave function.)

Key Points

Physical quantities correspond to operators in quantum mechanics.

Expressions for various important operators were given.

Kinetic energy is in terms of the so-called Laplacian operator.

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The important total energy operator, (kinetic plus potential energy,)

is called the Hamiltonian.

Next: 3.4 The Orthodox Statistical Interpretation

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