Paper 3, Section II, B

Quantum Mechanics | Part IB, 2019

Consider a quantum mechanical particle moving in two dimensions with Cartesian coordinates x,yx, y. Show that, for wavefunctions with suitable decay as x2+y2x^{2}+y^{2} \rightarrow \infty, the operators

x and ixx \quad \text { and } \quad-i \hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial x}

are Hermitian, and similarly

y and iyy \text { and }-i \hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial y}

are Hermitian.

Show that if FF and GG are Hermitian operators, then

12(FG+GF)\frac{1}{2}(F G+G F)

is Hermitian. Deduce that

L=i(xyyx) and D=i(xx+yy+1)L=-i \hbar\left(x \frac{\partial}{\partial y}-y \frac{\partial}{\partial x}\right) \quad \text { and } \quad D=-i \hbar\left(x \frac{\partial}{\partial x}+y \frac{\partial}{\partial y}+1\right)

are Hermitian. Show that

[L,D]=0.[L, D]=0 .

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