Paper 3, Section II, D

Quantum Mechanics | Part IB, 2015

A quantum-mechanical system has normalised energy eigenstates χ1\chi_{1} and χ2\chi_{2} with non-degenerate energies E1E_{1} and E2E_{2} respectively. The observable AA has normalised eigenstates,

ϕ1=C(χ1+2χ2), eigenvalue =a1ϕ2=C(2χ1χ2), eigenvalue =a2\begin{aligned} \phi_{1} &=C\left(\chi_{1}+2 \chi_{2}\right), & & \text { eigenvalue }=a_{1} \\ \phi_{2} &=C\left(2 \chi_{1}-\chi_{2}\right), & & \text { eigenvalue }=a_{2} \end{aligned}

where CC is a positive real constant. Determine CC.

Initially, at time t=0t=0, the state of the system is ϕ1\phi_{1}. Write down an expression for ψ(t)\psi(t), the state of the system with t0t \geqslant 0. What is the probability that a measurement of energy at time tt will yield E2E_{2} ?

For the same initial state, determine the probability that a measurement of AA at time t>0t>0 will yield a1a_{1} and the probability that it will yield a2a_{2}.

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