PYL- QM Postulates and Important Definitions

Manas Choudhary
April 2021

I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it

Erwin Schrödinger

1 Postulates
Quantum mechanics just like any other mechanics is based upon some funda-
mental postulates which are summarized below
1. For every dynamic system there is a wavefunction such that all the
probabilities can be obtained from it.
2. Corresponding to every physical observable there is an operator for eg
P̂ such that states with definite values of the observable are eigenstates
of P̂ . The general state of a system is superposition of the eigenstates.
However, a measurement of that observable always gives one of the eigen
values corresponding to its operator P̂ . Hence over a large sample size
one can only predict the probability of getting a particular value for that
observable among the set of all possible eigen values.
3. Any operator associated with a physically measurable quantity is
Hermitian.
4. Any wavefunction corresponding to a dynamic system must satisfy the
Schrodinger equation along with the associated boundary conditions.

2 Definitions and Observations

• Hermitian operator

An operator Q̂ is called Hermitian if it satisfies

< ψa |Q̂ψb >=< Q̂ψa |ψb >

Observation→The eigenvalues for a Hermitian operator are real

1
 • Orthogonal

Two wavefunctions are orthogonal if

< ψa |ψb >= 0

Observation→Two eigenfunctions of a hermitian operator are orthogonal

to each other if corresponding eigen values are unequal.
• An eigenvalue of eigenvalue equation is m fold degenerate if there are m
linearly independent eigen functions corresponding to this eigen value.

Things to try out and extras

Try proving the observations in point 1 and point 2 above. Try using the defi-
nition of Hermitian operator used above and then it would become really easy
to prove.

A word of caution⇒ The way inner product is defined in quantum physics

is opposite to that used in Mathematics as the conjugate part is written first.
So stay alert while importing properties of inner products from Mathematics