Phys 481 Homework 1 Solutions

January 16, 2016

4.25) In this problem we are treating the electron to behave as a classical sphere (this is a rather naive
model, for electrons are point particles so we do not in general treat them like rigid bodies as we
are in this problem), so we will use the fact that the moment of inertia of a solid sphere is given by
I = 2/5mrc2 , where
e2
rc =
,
40 mc2
as given in the problem statement. From classical mechanics, we know that L = I = 2/5mrc2 (v/rc ),
so using the fact that L = ~/2, we see that
2
~
= mrc v,
2
5
thus
2

5(1.055 1034 J s)(8.85 1012 NCm2 )(3 108 m/s)2

5~
5~0 c2
v=
=
=
5.16 1010 m/s.
4mrc
e2
1.6 1019 C 2
Clearly this model cannot make sense, for we obtained a velocity that is over 100 times greater than
the speed of light!
4.27) (a) We know that our spin state |i is to be normalized, so we require that h| i = 1, so:

h| i = |A|

 

3i
3i 4
4

= |A|2 (9 + 16) = 25|A|2 = 1

1
A= .
5
(b) Were looking for hSi i h| Si |i =
Pauli matrices:

~
2

h| i |i, where i = x, y, z and the i s denote the 2 2

~
h| x |i
2

  

0 1 1 3i
~ 1
3i 4
=
1 0 5 4
2 5
 


~
3i
4 3i
=
4
50
~
= (12i 12i)
50
=0

hSx i =

hSy i =
=
=
=
=

~
h| y |i
2

 

0 i
~
3i
3i 4
i 0
4
50
 

3i
~
4i 3
4
50
~
(12 12)
50
24~
50

hSz i =
=
=
=
=

~
h| z |i
2

 

1 0
~
3i
3i 4
0 1
4
50
 

3i
~
3i 4
4
50
~
(9 16)
50
7~
.
50

q
(c) To find uncertainties Si hSi2 i hSi i2 , i = x, y, z, we first note that the square of any of
the Pauli matrices gives the identity matrix: i.e.


1 0
2
2
2
x = y = x =
(you should check this on your own!).
0 1
From here, we see that for any normalized spinor
 
a
,
where |a|2 + |b|2 = 1,
|i =
b
it follows that
~2
4
~2
=
4
~2
=
4

hSi2 i =

 2 
 i 
h| I |i
a



1

 
a
b
1

 
~2
a
a b
=
b
4
~2
(|a|2 + |b|2 )
4
~2
= ,
4
=

where i = x, y, z. Now that weve established hSi2 i, we find that

Sx

p
= hSx2 i hSx i2
r
~2
=
0
4
~
= .
2

Sy =

hSy2 i hSy i2

~2

4
7~
=
.
50
=

24~
50

2

p
hSz2 i hSz i2
r
~2 49~2

=
4
2500
12~
=
.
25

Sz =

(d) The uncertainty principles that we need to check are listed as follows:
Sx Sy

~
|hSz i|,
2

Sx Sz

~
|hSy i|,
2

and Sy Sz

~
|hSx i|.
2

Multiplying the products of the uncertainties found in part (c) above, we find:
7~2
~
= |hSz i|
100
2
2
12~
~
=
= |hSy i|
50
2
2
~
96~
> 0 = |hSy i|,
=
1250
2

Sx Sy =
Sx Sz
Sy Sz

so our results are consistent with all three of the uncertainty principles.
4.28) Given the most general normalized spinor
|i =

 
a
,
b

we see

~
hSy i
h| x |i
2
 

~
0 1
a
a b
=
4b
1 0
2
 
~
a
b a
=
b
2
~
= (b a + a b)
2

hSx i =

~
hSz i
h| y |i
2
 

~
0 i
a
a b
=
b
i 0
2
 

a
~
b i a i
=
b
2
i~
= (ab a b)
2
=

We already showed in part (c) of the previous problem that hSi2 i =

2
hSx2 i + hSy2 i + hSz2 i = 3~4 . Explicitly computing hS 2 i:
3~2
hS i =
4
2

3~2
a
4

~2
4 .

~
h| z |i
2
 

~
1 0
a
a b
=
b
0 1
2
 

a
~
a b
=
b
2
~
= (|a|2 |b|2 ).
2
=

From this result, we see that

  


1 0
a
b
0 1
 

a
b
b
b

3~2
(|a|2 + |b|2 )
4
3~2
=
.
4
=

We know this must be true because |i is normalized, so it follows that |a|2 + |b|2 = 1.
4.29) (a) We know that for any spin-1/2 state |i, a measurement of any spin operator will yield an
eigenstate with eigenvalues ~2 (you can check this by explicitly determining the eigenvalues of
the 2 2 matrix Sy , as you would any 2 2 matrix). Now it amounts to finding the eigenspinors
of Sy :

~
2


 
 
~ a1
0 i
a1
=+
i 0
b1
2 b1

so a1 = 1, and b1 = i

~
2

 
 
~ a2
0 i
a2
=
i 0
b2
2 b2

so a2 = 1, and b2 = i

Substituting our values in and normalizing, we find our eigenspinors to be

 
 y
1
1
 =
+
2 i
for spin up, and
 y
 = 1


1
i

for spin down.

(b) As was indicated in part (a), a measurement of Sy on the general state |i will yield values of
~
~

~2 . We can determine

y   2the relative probabilities of measuring either 2 or 2 , by looking at

y
2
| + | or |  | , respectively:


 

y  2  1

a 2



| + | =  1 i
b 
2

2
 1

=  (a + bi)
2
1
= |a + bi|2
2


 
 1

a 2



1 i
| =
b 
2
2


 1

=  (a bi)
2
1
= |a bi|2
2


so the probability of measuring + ~2 is 12 |a+bi|2 , and the probability of measuring ~2 is 21 |abi|2 .

As a sanity check, lets make sure that these two probabilities add to unity:

 
1
1
| y+  |2 + | y  |2 = |a + bi|2 + |a bi|2
2
2
1
1

= (a + bi)(a b i) + (a bi)(a + b i)
2
2

1


1
2

=
|a| + ab i ba i + |b|2 +
|a|2 ab i + ba i + |b|2
2
2
2
2
= |a| + |b|
= 1.
(c) As we have shown earlier, hSi2 i =
probability of 1.

~2
4 ,

so we would expect to measure a value of + ~4 , with a

4.31) When constructing the spin-1 operators, note that there are now three allowed projections of angular
momentum, namely ms = 1, 0, 1. Given this, we can construct our three spin-1 states |s, ms i as:



1
0
0

|s = 1, ms = 1i = 0 ,
|1, 0i = 1 ,
|1, 1i = 0 .
0
0
1
Using the fact that in the basis where Sz is diagonalized, Sz |s, mi = m~ |s, mi, it follows that the
matrix operator Sz in the spin-1 case is given by:

1 0 0
Sz = ~ 0 0 0 .
0 0 1
Aside: We can rigorously test this by construcing the individual matrix elements of Sz , this can
be done by computing hs0 , m0 | Sz |s, mi = m~ hs0 , m0 | s, mi = m~ss0 mm0 , where ss0 and mm0 are

the kronecker delta symbols. We know that the matrix elements evaulate to this because of the
orthonormality of the |s, mi states. Analyzing the expression hs0 , m0 | Sz |s, mi = m~ hs0 , m0 | s, mi =
m~ss0 mm0 carefully, we see that the spin operator Sz forms a diagonal 3 3 matrix with diagonal
entries given by ms (and of course a multipicative constant of ~). We could use this expression to
show that for spin-3/2 particles Sz is given by ~ times a 4 4 diagonal matrix with diagonal entries
given by 3/2, 1/2, 1/2, 3/2, respectively. This also generalizes to the diagonal spin operator for
higher spins.
Back to the main task at hand: with the construction of our Sz operator, we can act with ladder
operators S on our three spin-1 states to determine the spin-1 operators Sx and Sy . To do this, we
must keep the following in mind (it is a good exercise to check these):
p
S |s, mi = ~ s(s + 1) m(m 1) |s, m 1i
(1)
and
Sx =

S+ + S
2

Sy =

S+ S
.
2i

(2)

Applying (1) to our spin-1 kets, we see

0
S+ |1, 1i = 0
0

2~ |1, 1i

1

= 2~ 0
0

S+ |1, 0i =

2~ |1, 0i

0

= 2~ 1
0

S+ |0, 1i =

Piecing together the three column vectors, will give us our S+ operator for spin 1 (we know that
S+ |1, 1i must be 0, for |1, 1i is the highest ms state for a spin-1 particle):

0
2~ 0
S+ = 0
0
2~
0
0
0
We can now apply the same procedure to construct S :

2~ |1, 0i

0

= 2~ 1
0

S |1, 1i =

2~ |1, 1i

0

= 2~ 0
1

S |1, 0i =

Like before, we may now piece together the three column

0
0

2~ 0
S =
0
2~

0
S |1, 1i = 0
0

vectors to get

0
0 .
0

Now that we have matrix representations of S+ and S , we simply substitute them into (2) to obtain

0 1 0
0 1 0
S+ + S
~
S

S
i~
+

1 0 1 and Sy =
Sx =
=
= 1 0 1 .
2
2i
2 0 1 0
2 0 1
0

 +
+

4.32) Lets start by writing out |+
x i, y , and |z i; i.e., the spin up states in the x, y, and z bases. The
~
reason why this is important is because the probability of measuring

+ + 2 for
 2the component of spin

angular momentum along the n
direction at time t is given by | n (t) | , where |(t)i denotes
+
the spin state of interest
given
in Griffiths eqn (4.163). Fortunately, |+
x i, and |z i are given in

Griffiths, and +
was computed in problem 4.29, so I wont belabor the calculations to obtain
y
spinors for these states and will just list them below:
 
 
 
 +
 +
 +
x = 1 1
y = 1 1
z = 1 .
0
2 1
2 i
(a)
|


+
x





 2 1

cos eiB0 t/2 2
2


(t) | =  1 1
sin 2 eiB0 t/2 
2
2

1 

= cos eiB0 t/2 + sin eiB0 t/2 
2
2
2



1

cos eiB0 t/2 + sin eiB0 t/2 cos eiB0 t/2 + sin eiB0 t/2
=
2
2
2
2
2



 iB0 t/2
1 2
iB0 t/2
2
cos
+ cos sin
e
+e
+ sin
=
2
2
2
2
2

1

=
1 + cos sin 2 cos(B0 t)
2
2
2
1
= (1 + sin cos(B0 t))
2

(b)



 2 1

+

cos eiB0 t/2 2
2



| y (t) | =  1 i
sin 2 eiB0 t/2 
2
2
1 


= cos eiB0 t/2 i sin eiB0 t/2 
2
2
2


1
iB0 t/2

=
cos e
i sin eiB0 t/2 cos eiB0 t/2 + i sin eiB0 t/2
2
2
2
2
2



 iB0 t/2
1 2
=
cos
+ i cos sin
e
eiB0 t/2 + sin2
2
2
2
2
2


1
=
1 + i cos sin 2i sin(B0 t)
2
2
2
1
= (1 sin sin(B0 t))
2
(c)




+
 2 

cos eiB0 t/2 2
2

| z  (t) | =  1 0
sin 2 eiB0 t/2 

= cos2
.
2