512 Quantum Mechanics (Winter 2020)

Prof. Aaron Pierce

Room 3460 Randall, atpierce@umich.edu

Homework 2 (assigned 2/3, due 2/10)

Sakruai 5.1: A simple harmonic oscillator (in one di-
mension)is subjected to a perturbation
H1 = bx (1)
where b is a constant.
a) Calculate the energy shift of the ground state to lowest
non-vanishing order.
b) Solve this problem exactly and compare with your
result from (a). You may assume without proof that
r
~ p p
hun0 |x̂|un i = ( n + 1 n0 ,n+1 + n n0 ,n 1 (2)
2m!
Hint: complete the square.

Sakurai 5.7:
A one-electron atom whose ground state is non-degenerate
is place in a uniform electric field in the z-direction. Ob-
tain an approximate expression of the induced electric
dipole moment of the ground state by considering the
expectation value of ez with respect to the perturbed-
state vector computed to first order. Show that the same
expression can also be obtained from the energy shift
 = ↵|E|2 /2 of the ground state computed to second
order. (Here ↵ stands for polarizability. Ignore spin.)

(Note hezi(1) ⌘ ↵E, where the (1) represents the first

order perturbed state, defines ↵.)

1) Previously we have considered the two dimensional

Hilbert Space with Hamiltonian
✓ 0 ◆
E1
H= (3)
E20
where for simplicity, I have taken all the above quantities
real.
a) Solve the problem exactly, and do an expansion in
to leading non-vanishing in .
b) Now, assuming << |E10 E20 |, derive the same
result by applying non-degenerate perturbation theory.
c) Now take the opposite limit, setting the two diagonal
entries equal to, say, E. What does the exact result give
in this case? If we you to apply degenerate perturbation
theory, would you get this result?

2) Compute the (linear) Stark e↵ect on the n = 3 states

of Hydrogen. You may ignore the spin-orbit coupling
and relativistic e↵ects. Our task is to identify the energy
shifts, as well as the linear combinations of the unper-
turbed eignenstates that receive these shifts. (That is,
find the “right eigenstates” that are stable under pertur-
bations.) This seems like a daunting task. After all there
are 9 =1+3+5 degenerate states with n=3. So, solving
the degenerate perturbation theory means we have to di-

2
agonalize a 9 ⇥ 9 matrix. However, life is not as bad as
it seems as almost all of these entires are zero.
a) By using selection rules arguments, argue that there
are only eight non-vanishing entries (out of the 81) and
identify which they are. ( I promised you these would
come in handy!)
b) Hermiticity ensures they all come in pairs, so it looks
like we have to compute 4 integrals. But life is even
better because two of these four integrals are identical,
as you can observe by inspection. (This is also a conse-
quence of T -invariance!) Evaluate these remaining three
integrals.
c) Solve for the energy shifts, as well as the “right eigen-
states” that are stable under perturbations.
You may you a mathematical mathematical manipu-
lation program (e.g., Mathematica) to evaluate integrals
and/or find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors if you like,
though it is not really necessary since the matrix is so
sparse.