PH4204 High Energy Physics Problem Set 1

Q 1) a) From the fact that rotations leave the length of a vector unchanged show that any 3 3 rotation matrix
must be orthogonal.
b) Prove that if a O is an orthogonal matrix, it obeys det O = 1.
c)Argue that a 3 3 orthogonal matrix representing a rotation must have a determinant of +1 . Hint : you can
build up a rotation in tiny steps starting from no rotation at all!
d) Show that if you represent a rotation infinitesimally close to the identity by R = I i (this is an expansion
of R to the first power of the infinitesimal parameters which are the components of ), the matrix must be
antisymmetric ij = ji .
e) Hence find the number of indepedent parameters describing an arbitrary infinitesimal rotation.

In the class we showed that the 3 3 generator matrices of the rotation group obeys the standard commutation
relations
[Ti , Tj ] = iijk Tk
We then went on to define the abstract Lie algebra so(3) (and its isomorphic counterpart su(2) ) as a three
dimensional vector space in which an additional operation (the Lie bracket [. . . , . . .] ) is defined so that the basis
vectors t1 , t2 and t3 obey
[ti , tj ] = iijk tk
We then went on to construct finite dimensional representations of the above - set of three finite dimensional square
matrices obeying the same commutation laws. In what follows we will try to see why we expect these representations
to be important.
If a physical object is described in a coordinate frame by n numbers xi , the numbers are expected to change when
the coordinate system is rotated. The simplest possibility is that the map xi 7 x0i is linear : x0i = Rij xj where R
is a n n matrix - the representative of the rotation R. I
There must be a R corresponding to each R. If R1 R2 = R3 we must have R1 R2 = R3 . This is simply the statement
that the way the components of a physical object may differ from one coordinate frame to another, but their values
in a particular frame should not depend on whether you reached this frame through successive rotations R2 and
R1 , or through a single rotation R3 .
When the coordinates are not rotated at all, R = I3 , then we expect R = In . When R denotes an infinitesimal
rotation, R = I + , we expect R to be close to the identity, in particular we expect to be able to write it as


i
R = I ij T ij + O 2
2
where T ij are matrices (not elements)!
0

Q 2)a) Using the fact that R R R

must correspond to the 3D rotation R R0 R1 , show that the n n matrices

must obey
R T ij R

= Rik Rjl T kl

b) Taking R as an infinitesimal rotation, calculate the commutator



T ij , T kl
1

c) Show that you can recover the familiar angular momentum commutation relations by appropriately relabelling
the generators.

In class we worked out that the following representation for the su(2) algebra (where 2j W, j k j)
Tz vk = kvk ,

T vk = vk1 ,

T+ vk = [j (j + 1) k (k + 1)] vk+1

Q 3)a) Explicitly write down the three matrices for j = 2.

b) Show by explicit calculation that the commutators of the matrices above respect the abstract Lie brackets
[tz , t ] = t ,

[t+ , t ] = 2tz

Q 4) In the theory of angular momentum in quantum mechanics we learnt that

Jz

J+

j
p
(j + m) (j m + 1)
p
(j m) (j + m + 1)

a) Write down the explicit matrices Jz , J for the three generators for the five dimensional representation.
b) Show by explicit calculation that the commutators of the matrices above respect the abstract Lie brackets.
c) Find a 55 matrix that shows that the two representations (in the previous problem and this one) are equivalent.
d) Show by an explicit calculation that
J 2 = j (j + 1)
e) Rotating a state through an angle about the axis n
gives a state
~

= einJ
Calculate the 5 5 matrix that represents a rotation through

about the x axis in this basis.

Q 5) Consider the direct product of two representations corresponding to j =

a) Write down the explicit 12 12 matrices for Tz , T+ and T .
b) Explicitly demonstrate how this reduces to
43=642

3
2

and j = 1, respectively.