JT 205 :Quantum Mechanics

Assignement 3
Due : 16th of December 2021
Answer all questions

1. The raising and lowering operators for angular momentum, J± = Jx ± iJy ,

commute with J2 and if j,m are the eigenvalues of J, Jz ,then

 E p  E
J± j , m = h̄ j(j + 1) − m(m ± 1)j, m ± 1 ,
 

for appropriately chosen phase conventions

 E of the state vectors. Use these
properties to express those states  j,m for which m = l - 21 in terms of

 E
the states l,ml ;s,ms with s = 12 .


2. A particle in a central potential has an orbital angular momentum l = 2h̄

and a spin s = h̄. Find the energy levels and the degeneracies associated
with a spin - orbit interaction term of the form HSO = A L . S, where A
is a constant.
3. Consider a spinless particle represented by the wave function

ψ = k(x + y + 2z)eαr , where,

p
r = x2 + y 2 + z 2 ,
and k and α are real constants.
a. What is the total angular momentum of the particle?
b. What is the expectation value of the z-component of the angular
momentum?
c. If Lz were measured, what is the probability that the result would
be Lz = +h̄?
d. What is the probability of finding the particle at (θ, ϕ), in the solid
angle dΩ ?

1
 r r
1 3
Y00 = Y1± =∓ sinθe±iϕ
4π 8π
r r
3 15
Y10 = cosθ Y2± =∓ sinθcosθe±iϕ
4π 8π

4. Employing first order perturbation theory, calculate the energy of the first
three states for an infinite square well of width a, whose portion AB has
been sliced off. (Note: The line OA is a straight line).

5. We are to add angular momenta j1 =1 and j2 =1 to form j =2,1 and 0

states. Using
 E operators, express all (nine) {j,m} eigenkets in
the ladder
terms of j1 j2 ;m1 ,m2 . Write your answer as


 E 1  E 1  E
j = 1, m = 1 = √ +, 0 − 0, + ....

2 /sqrt2

where + and 0 stand for m1,2 = 1,0 , respectively.

6. An electron moves in a Coulomb field centered at the origin of coordinate
system. With neglect of spin and relativistic corrections the first excited
level (n = 2) is well known to be 4-fold degenerate: l = 0, ml = 0 ; l=1,
ml = 1, 0, -1. Consider what happens to this level in the presence of
an additional non-central potential Vpert : Vpert = f(r)xy, where f(r) is
some central function, well-behaved but not otherwise specified (it falls

2
 off rapidly enough as r → ∞). This perturbation is to be treated to first
order. To this order the originally degenerate n = 2 level splits into several
levels of different energies, each characterized by an energy shift ∆E and
by a degeneracy.
a. How many distinct energy levels are there?
b. What is the degeneracy of each ?
c. Given the energy shift, call it A (A>0), for one of the levels, what
are the values of the shift for all the others?
7. A beam produced by aStern-Gerlach filter can be written as
|Ψ = S + | ↑ + S − | ↓ . When a part of this beam is passed through an


z-analyzer, it was found that < Sz >= 0. However, when the other part
passed through a x-analyzer,< Sx > was found to be h̄4 .Calculate < Sy >.
What are the possible directions along which the original Stern-Gerlach
filter may have been oriented?