Physics 137A (lectures 1&3, Fall 2014): Homework #4

A.E. Charman

Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley

(Dated: 9/20/2014; DUE: 9/29/2014)
Solutions to all required (i.e., non-practice) problems are due in the Physics 137A (lectures 1&3)
box in the Physics Department Reading Room (251 LeConte) before 6 pm on MONDAY,
September 29, 2014 (because of the holiday). Remember that you will receive points based on
overall completeness, and also for a subset of problems that will be holistically graded in detail
based on content, presentation, and analysis. Problems or parts of problems marked [PRACTICE]
will not be graded, but are suggested for extra exploration or practice if you wish. A request to
show or prove a result is meant to elicit the sort of argument that would satisfy a physicist,
not necessarily a professional mathematiciancogent, reasonably clear in its logical direction, but
not necessarily completely rigorous and explicit in all of its mathematical steps.
I. ANNOUNCEMENTS
Andys oce hours this coming week will be Wednesday 34 pm, Friday 23 pm, and Monday 34 pm,
or by appointment.
II. READING
Required:
Finish Townsend: Chapter 3; start Chapter 4 for the end of next week.
Recommended:
Finish Section III of Lecture Notes 2: Operators on Finite-Dimensional Vector Spaces for a discussion
of Operators in Dirac Notation; Finish Bowman: Chapter 4, Appendix D
Suggested:
For more background on operators and linear algebra, again see Notes 2, Sections III;
nish Bowman: Chapter 57; Miller: Chapters 45
III. PROBLEMS [WEIGHT = 125]
Some questions on Hermitian and unitary quantum operators, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, commuta-
tors, etc....
1. Townsend, Problem 3.1
2. Townsend, Problem 3.2
3. [PRACTICE] Townsend, Problem 3.5. HINT: be careful with the order in which you apply the
rotation operators.
4. Townsend, Problem 3.9

Electronic address: acharman@physics.berkeley.edu

2
5. Townsend, Problem 3.10.
6. [PRACTICE] Townsend, Problem 3.11.
7. [PRACTICE] Townsend, Problem 3.13
8. [PRACTICE] Townsend, Problem 3.17
9. Suppose A = A

and B = B

are Hermitian operators:

(a) Show that the operator
AiI
A+iI
is unitary.
(b) Show that if [A, B] = 0, then the operator
A+iB

A
2
+B
2
is unitary.
(c) Show that if [A, B] = 0, then

A, e
isB

= 0 for any real parameter s.

(d) Show that if

A, e
isB

= 0 for any real parameter s, then [A, B] = 0.

(e) [PRACTICE] nd examples of operators A and B such the

A, e
iB

= 0 but [A, B] = 0.
10. Suppose A =

7 0 0
0 1 i
0 i 1

and B =

1 0 3
0 2i 0
i 0 5i

:
(a) Verify that A is Hermitian but that B is not.
(b) Calculate AB and BA and verify explicitly that Tr[AB] = Tr[BA]. Then calculate [A, B] and verify
explicitly that Tr [A, B] = 0.
(c) Verify explicitly that det[AB] = det[BA] = det[A] det[B].
(d) Calculate the eigenvalues and corresponding orthonormal eigenvectors of A.
(e) Verify that the sum of eigenvalues of A is equal to Tr[A], and their product is equal to det[A].
(f ) Verify that the eigenvectors of A form a basis for C
3
.
(g) If U is the matrix whose columns are the eigenvectors of A, verify explicitly that U

U = UU

= I,
and that U

AU is a diagonal matrix, whose diagonal matrices are the eigenvalues of A.

(h) Calculate the inverse matrix A
1
. HINT: make use of all of the preceding work you put into the
diagonalization of A.
3
11. Suppose the Hamiltonian (energy) of a 3-level system is represented (in some orthonormal basis) by
the matrix H = E
0

2 i 0
i 1 1
0 1 0

, where E
0
is some positive constant with the dimensions of energy:
(a) Consider the unnormalized state

+i
+7i
2

(with respect to the same basis used above to express H as

a matrix). Normalize this state, and calculate the average energy H in this state.
(b) If the energy is measured, what are the possible measurement results? Specify them in order of
increasing energy.
(c) Suppose the ground state (lowest possible) energy is measured. Find the Hermitian projection P
1
into the corresponding state, and verify by explicit matrix multiplication that [H, P
1
] = 0.
(d) Starting in the state specied in part (a), if the energy is measured, what is the probability that the
energy is measured to be the ground state energy?
(e) Starting in the state specied in part (a), if the energy is measured, what is the probability that the
energy is measured to be the largest possible energy?
(f ) Starting in the state specied in part (a), if the energy is measured, what is the probability that the
energy is measured to be the intermediate value?
(g) Find the standard deviation
H
of the energy, when prior to measurement the system is described
by the state specied in part (a).
12. [PRACTICE] Consider the matrix A =

0 0 i
0 1 0
i 0 0

:
(a) Calculate A
2
, then A
3
.
(b) Infer the expressions for A
n
for all nonnegative integer powers n.
(c) Use these results to nd an expression for the matrix e
ixA
, for any real value of x, by rearranging
the Taylor series expansion.
(d) Guess, then verify, the eigenvectors of A. Find the corresponding eigenvalues.
(e) Use the results from part (d) to write A as a similarity transformation of some diagonal matrix.
(f ) Use the results from part (e) to nd e
ixA
. Verify that your answer is the same as in part (c).
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13. [PRACTICE] Consider the matrices A =

0 1 0
1 0 1
0 1 0

and B =

1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1

:
(a) Find the eigenvalues and corresponding normalized eigenvectors of A and B, indexed for deniteness
in non-decreasing order of the eigenvalues for each operator.
(b) Verify the orthonormality conditions, and the resolution of the identity (into sums over outer prod-
ucts of the orthonormal basis vectors), for both sets of eigenstates.
(c) Find a change-of-basis matrix U converting from representations of states in the B eigenbasis to the
A eigenbasis. Verify that U is unitary.
(d) Find the representation of A and B in the eigenbasis for A.
(e) Find the representation of A and B in the eigenbasis for B.
(f ) Find the representation of A
2
and B
2
in the eigenbasis for B.
(g) Find the representation of A
2
and B
2
in the eigenbasis for B.
(h) Can A and B be measured simultaneously in general? What about A
2
and B
2
?
14. [PRACTICE] For any Hermitian observable A on a two-state system:
(a) Express the eigenvalues of A explicitly in terms of Tr[A] and det[A].
(b) Verify that if we evaluate the operator-valued function consisting of As characteristic polynomial,
evaluated at A itself, we obtain the zero operator we say that A is an operator-valued root of its own
characteristic polynomial. This is a case of the celbrated Cayley-Hamilton Theorem.
15. Consider a system whose Hamilton (energy) is H = a(|
1

2
| +|
2

1
|), where a is a real constant
with dimensions of energy, and the kets |
1
and |
2
are normalized eigenstates of some other Hermitian
observable L that has no degenerate eigenvalues.
(a) Show that neither |
1
nor |
2
is an eigenstate of H.
(b) Is H proportional to any projection operator Q = Q

= Q
2
? What about H
2
?
(c) Calculate the commutators of H with the projections P
1
= |
1

1
| and P
2
= |
2

2
|. Can L be
measured simultaneously with H?
(d) Find the normalized eigenstates |
1
and |
2
of the Hamiltonian H, and the corresponding energy
eigenvalues
1
<
2
.
(e) Find the expectation values
1
| H|
1
and
2
| H|
2
.
(f ) Find the expectation values
1
| H
2
|
1
and
2
| H
2
|
2
.
(g) If the system is prepared in |
1
and the energy is subsequently measured, nd the probability the
the energy is obsered to be the ground-state energy (
1
in our notation).
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16. [PRACTICE] For the same system explored in problem #15, consider another (albeit non-
Hermitian) linear operator B = |
1

2
|.
(a) Prove that B
2
= 0.
(b) Write H in terms of B and B

.
(c) Show that B

B and BB

are Hermitian projections, which are mutually orthogonal.

(d) Show that (B

B +B

B) is Hermitian, while (B

B B

B) is unitary. Diagonalize both.

17. Consider two Hermitian observables F and G which commute (meaning [F, G] = 0), and let |
1

and |
2
be eigenvectors of F corresponding to distinct eigenvalues.
(a) Show that
1
|
2
= 0. (HINT: we did this in class).
(a) Show that
1
| F |
2
= 0 and
1
| G|
2
= 0.
(b) Show that G|
1
is also an eigenvector of F, with the same eigenvalue as |
1
itself.
18. Find two Hermitian matrices A and B which share a common eigenvector, but which nevertheless
do not commute.
HINT: Think about the lowest-dimensional vector space in which this can be true.
19. Given two Hermitian observables K = K

and L = L

on a nite-dimensional complex vector

space, show that K = L if and only if all of their expectation values agree that is, if and only if
| K| = | L| for arbitrary | in the vector space.
20. [PRACTICE] If the Hermitian observables A and B satisfy A
4
= 16 I and B
4
+B
2
= I, nd their
respective possible eigenvalues.