Paper 3, Section I, C

Quantum Mechanics | Part IB, 2021

The electron in a hydrogen-like atom moves in a spherically symmetric potential V(r)=K/rV(r)=-K / r where KK is a positive constant and rr is the radial coordinate of spherical polar coordinates. The two lowest energy spherically symmetric normalised states of the electron are given by

χ1(r)=1πa3/2er/a and χ2(r)=142πa3/2(2ra)er/2a\chi_{1}(r)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi} a^{3 / 2}} e^{-r / a} \quad \text { and } \quad \chi_{2}(r)=\frac{1}{4 \sqrt{2 \pi} a^{3 / 2}}\left(2-\frac{r}{a}\right) e^{-r / 2 a}

where a=2/mKa=\hbar^{2} / m K and mm is the mass of the electron. For any spherically symmetric function f(r)f(r), the Laplacian is given by 2f=d2fdr2+2rdfdr\nabla^{2} f=\frac{d^{2} f}{d r^{2}}+\frac{2}{r} \frac{d f}{d r}.

(i) Suppose that the electron is in the state χ(r)=12χ1(r)+32χ2(r)\chi(r)=\frac{1}{2} \chi_{1}(r)+\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2} \chi_{2}(r) and its energy is measured. Find the expectation value of the result.

(ii) Suppose now that the electron is in state χ(r)\chi(r) (as above) at time t=0t=0. Let R(t)R(t) be the expectation value of a measurement of the electron's radial position rr at time tt. Show that the value of R(t)R(t) oscillates sinusoidally about a constant level and determine the frequency of the oscillation.

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