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    Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum
    Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum
    Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum
    Ebook119 pages51 minutes

    Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum

    By Eugene Feenberg and George Edward Pake

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    About this ebook

    This classic, concise text has served a generation of physicists as an exceptionally useful guide to the mysteries of angular momenta and Clebsch-Gordon Coefficients. Derived from notes originally prepared to assist graduate students in reading research papers on atomic, molecular, and nuclear structure, the text first reviews the basic elements of quantum theory. It then examines the development of the fundamental commutation relations for angular momentum components and vector operators, and the ways in which matrix elements and eigenvalues of the angular momentum operators are worked out from the commutation relations.These chapters constitute a review on an elementary level of material usually included in a one-year course in quantum theory.
    In the second half of the text, the matrix elements of scalar, vector, and tensor operators are computed and applied to derive several useful relations in the theory of magnetic moments, electric quadruple moments, and dipole transition probabilities. Eschewing all that is irrelevant, this book focuses on the essentials and prepares readers for further study in the field. A helpful list of references concludes the work.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateJan 23, 2013
    ISBN9780486173931
    Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum

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      Book preview

      Notes on the Quantum Theory of Angular Momentum - Eugene Feenberg

      PHYSICS

      CHAPTER 1

      REVIEW OF QUANTUM THEORY DEFINITIONS AND NOTATIONS

      It is assumed that the reader has encountered the material of this chapter in his previous study of quantum mechanics. If a conventional graduate course in quantum mechanics is a recent experience, the chapter need only be skimmed to gain familiarity with the notation.

      1–1 Operators. An operator is a symbolic representation of a rule relating two sets of functions. Familiar examples of such rules include raising to a power, taking a logarithm, and differentiating. In quantum theory, it is customary to write the operator to the left of the function upon which it acts. Furthermore, many important physical operators are linear, a property expressed by the equation

      (1)

      in which A is the operator, a and b are constants, and f and g are functions to which the operator is applied. Of the three operators listed above, only the derivative has the linear property.

      In quantum mechanics any classical quantity expressed as a function of the particle coordinates and momenta is interpretable as an operator. The formulation in terms of the rectangular position and momentum coordinates usually allows the unambiguous identification of the operator corresponding to the classical quantity. For example, in the Schroedinger formulation of quantum mechanics, the rectangular coordinate component qk is treated as a continuous independent variable, and the canonically conjugate momentum pk (ћ is the Dirac quantum of action, Planck’s h divided by 2π, and i is the imaginary unit). Thus a classical quantity f(q1, . . . ; p1, . . .) becomes the operator

      involving two canonically conjugate variables. It should be explicitly noted that not all operators occurring in quantum mechanics have classical counterparts. Important examples in this category are the intrinsic spin operators and the parity operator.

      1–2 Linear operator algebra and matrix elements. The algebra of linear operators is similar to ordinary algebra, with one notable exception. Let A and B represent linear operators defined with respect to a function space F. Then if ψ is a function belonging to F, A and B obey the distributive law

      (1)

      and the associative law

      (2)

      The second relation requires, of course, that Bψ belong to F.

      The notable departure from ordinary algebra lies in the possible failure of the commutative law. For certain operators A and B,

      (3)

      or simply AB ≠ BA. This property is sufficiently important to warrant definition of a quantity called the commutator of two operators.

      The commutator of A with B, written [A,B], is defined as

      (4)

      For example, the commutator of ∂/∂x with x does not vanish, and is, in fact, equal to unity:

      (5)

      Two operators with a vanishing commutator are said to commute. All multiplicative operators, such as x and y², commute.

      The matrix element of an operator A with respect to the functions φ and ψ, written (φ, Aψ), is defined as

      (6)

      denotes the complex conjugate of φ. In general, the symbol (f,g), where f and g are functions of the same variables x1, . . . , is defined as

      (7)

      and is sometimes referred to as the scalar product of f and g.

      The adjoint A* of an operator A is defined by the condition

      (8)

      The second

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