Department of Applied Physics AALTO UNIVERSITY

PHYS-E0414 Advanced Quantum Mechanics

Exercise sheet 5

Exercise 1: Orbital angular momentum and measurements

Consider a system with orbital angular momentum quantum number l = 1. The matrix repre-
sentations of the orbital angular momentum operators are

     
0 1 0 0 −i 0 1 0 0
ℏ ℏ
L̂x = √  1 0 1  , L̂y = √  i 0 −i  , L̂z = ℏ  0 0 0  .
2 0 1 0 2 0 i 0 0 0 −1

a) Find the matrix representation of L̂2 = L̂2x + L̂2y + L̂2z and verify that it has the 2l + 1 = 3-
fold degenerate eigenvalue ℏ2 l(l + 1) = 2ℏ2 .

b) What are the possible values we will obtain when measuring L̂y ?

c) Calculate ⟨L̂z ⟩, ⟨L̂2z ⟩, and ∆Lz if the system is in the state with ly = 1.

d) Repeat c) for ⟨L̂x ⟩, ⟨L̂2x ⟩, and ∆Lx .

Exercise 2: Polaron transformation

Consider a two-level system coupled to a harmonic oscillator governed by the Hamiltonian

p̂2 1
Ĥ = εσ̂z + + mω02 x̂2 + gσ̂z x̂.
2m 2
Here, the first three terms describe the two-level system and the harmonic oscillator, while the
last term accounts for the coupling between them with strength g.

a) Discuss the physical interpretation of this Hamiltonian.

b) Consider the polaron transformation, Û = e−iαp̂σ̂z , where α is a parameter to be deter-

mined. Describe the physical meaning of this transformation.

c) Apply the polaron transformation to the Hamiltonian, Ĥ → Û Ĥ Û † , and show that it is

possible to remove the coupling term by a suitable choice of α.

d) Determine the eigenenergies of Ĥ.

Exercise 3: Ground state of the Rabi model (Homework)

Consider a two-level system (with basis states {|↓⟩ , |↑⟩}) with energy splitting ℏΩ coupled to
a harmonic oscillator with frequency ω0 , and a coupling strength between them denoted by λ.
The Hamiltonian reads
ℏΩ
Ĥ = ℏω0 (↠â + 1/2) + σ̂z + ℏλ(â + ↠)σ̂x ,
2
where σ̂i are the Pauli matrices, and the relation [â, ↠] = 1 holds for the ladder operators.

We define Ω ≡ η 2 Ω0 and λ ≡ ηλ0 , and take η ≫ 1, so that both the energy splitting and the
coupling are much larger than the oscillator frequency, while their ratio λ/Ω is kept small.

λ †
a) Apply the unitary transformation Û = ei Ω (â+â )σ̂y to the Hamiltonian and show that the
transformed Hamiltonian, Ĥ ′ = Û Ĥ Û † , to lowest order in λ/Ω becomes

ℏΩ
Ĥ ′ ≃ ℏω0 (↠â + 1/2) + σ̂z + ℏg(a + a† )2 σ̂z ,
2
where we have defined g ≡ 2λ20 /Ω0 . Hint: Expand the unitary transformation in λ/Ω.

Since only the second term is large, the two-level system must be in its ground state, |↓⟩.

b) Project the transformed Hamiltonian onto this low-energy subspace by defining Ĥ0′ = ⟨↓
|Ĥ ′ | ↓⟩, and show that the result can be written as

ℏΩ
Ĥ0′ = (ℏω0 − 2ℏg)(↠â + 1/2) − − ℏg(â2 + â†2 ).
2

∗ â2 −ξâ†2 )/2

Now consider the squeeze operator Ŝ = e(ξ .

c) Prove the following identities:

2
Ŝ † â2 Ŝ = â cosh |ξ| − ↠ei arg ξ sinh |ξ| ,

2
Ŝ † â†2 Ŝ = ↠cosh |ξ| − âe−i arg ξ sinh |ξ| ,
Ŝ † ↠âŜ = ↠cosh |ξ| − âe−i arg ξ sinh |ξ| â cosh |ξ| − ↠ei arg ξ sinh |ξ| .

Hint: Use the identities that we derived in Exercise 3 on Exercise sheet 4:

Ŝ † âŜ = â cosh |ξ| − ↠ei arg ξ sinh |ξ|,

Ŝ † ↠Ŝ = ↠cosh |ξ| − âe−i arg ξ sinh |ξ|.
 
ω0
d) Diagonalize the Hamiltonian Ĥ0′ in b) using the squeeze operator, with ξ = − 41 log ω0 −4g
,
where ω0 > 4g.

e) What are the three lowest eigenenergies?