Review of Lecture 5

The
Quantum Harmonic Oscillator:
'
Potential:

1
V (x) = m 2 x2
2

The ladder operators:

Raising operator:
1
(ip + mx)
a+ =
2m h
Lowering operator:
1
a =
(ip + mx)
2m h
Definition of commutator:
[A, B] = AB BA
Canonical commutation relation:
[x, p] = ih
The ground (lowest) solution of the time-independent Schrdinger equation
for the harmonic oscillator is:
0 (x) =

 m 1/4

h
1
E0 = h
2

m 2

e 2h x

To find all other functions we can use n (x) = An (a+ )n 0 (x).

The possible energies are:
&



1
h
En = n +
2

Exercise 8
Find the first excited state of the harmonic oscillator.
Useful integrals:

x2n ex

2 /a2

dx =

x2n+1 ex

(2n)!  a 2n+1

n!
2

2 /a2

40

dx =

n! 2n+2
a
2

You can also get the normalization algebraically using

Then,

Therefore, the normalization constant An is

Other useful formulas:

41

The Harmonic Oscillator: The Analytic Method

We now solve the Schrdinger equation for the harmonic oscillator directly:

Change variables for convenience:

Therefore, we look for solutions in the form

42

We look for solutions in the form of a power series

The coefficient of each power of must vanish:

43

Problem: not all solutions are normalizable

44

We have recovered our previous result that was obtained using the algebraic method!
Note: the condition above will terminate either odd or even power series; the other must be zero
from the start.
How do we generate the wave functions?

45

Apart from the overall factor (a0 or a1 ) the polynomials hn ( ) are the so-called Hermite polynomials Hn ( ). By tradition, the arbitrary multiplicative factor is chosen so that the coefficient of the
highest power of is 2n . With this convention, the normalized stationary states for the harmonic
oscillator are

Summary
The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator: The Analytic Method
Our mission: Solve

h 2 d 2 1
+ m 2 x2 = E
2m dx2 2

(1)
$

'

Step 1: Change variables

r

m
x
h
2E
K
h

Resulting equation:
&
'

d2
= ( 2 K)
d 2

(2)
%
$

Step 2: Determine the solution for and separate out the resulting
2
function e /2 .
2
( ) = h( )e /2
Resulting equation:
&

d2h
dh

2
+ (K 1)h = 0
d 2
d
46

(3)
%

'

Step 3: Look for solutions of this equation (Equation 3) in the form of a

power series:
h( ) = a0 + a1 + a2 2 + . . . =

a j j

j=0

Resulting equation: Recursion formula

a j+2 =
&
'

(2 j + 1 K)
aj
( j + 1)( j + 2)

(4)
%
$

Step 4: Need to truncate

a j j somewhere to ensure that all solutions are

j=0

normalizable. Thus the power series must terminate, i.e.

an+2 = 0
for some n = jmax .
Resulting equation:

&
'

K = 2n + 1


1
h , n = 0, 1, 2, . . .
En = n +
2

%
$

Step 5: Put it all together and generate the wave functions

n (x) =

 m 1/4
h

2
1

Hn ( )e /2
n
2 n!

where Hn are Hermite polynomials.

&

As expected, we get the same result as before using a operators.

47

Note that the probability of finding the particle outside of the classically allowed regions is not
zero. The potential energy curve represents the classically-allowed maximum displacement of the
oscillator. All the wave functions extend beyond the curve.
Classically, the energy of the oscillator is E = 12 Ka2 = 12 m 2 a2 , where a is the amplitude.
Only for large n do we see some resemblance to the classical case:

Computer simulation: http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html, 1D Quantum mechanics applet,

Harmonic oscillator

48

The Free Particle: V (x) = 0 everywhere

We introduce

(Same as inside of the infinite square well, where the potential is zero.) For reasons that will be
clear later, we will write the solution in exponential form instead of sin or cos:

There are no boundary conditions to restrict the values of the energy here, and the free particle can
have any positive energy. Adding the time-dependent terms exp(iEt/h), the wave function is

A function that depends on x vt can represent any wave of fixed profile that travels with speed v
in the direction of x. Note that a point on the waveform, for example a maximum, corresponds to
a fixed value of x vt. Every point on the waveform is moving with the same speed, so the shape
does not change as it propagates. Hence a function that depends on x vt is a wave moving to the
right, while one that depends on x + vt is a wave moving to the left.

49

We can put these two expressions together by allowing k to be both positive and negative:

These solutions are analogous to the stationary states of the infinite square well and harmonic
oscillator, but here we have no boundary conditions. Hence k is a continuous variable and the
energies are not quantized. The solutions are propagating waves.
As waves, we can assign a wavelength :

According to the de Broglie formula, the waves carry momentum

The speed of the waves can be found directly from the solution by writing the exponent as x vt:

However, the classical speed of a free particle with energy E is given by E = 12 mv2 :

Therefore, it appears that the wave function travels at only half the speed of the particle that it is
supposed to represent! We will return to this problem later.
The other problem is that the resulting wave function is not normalizable:

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