Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007

1 Time evolution of a spin an an external magnetic eld and Spin

Resonance
(1)
d

S
i
(t)
dt
=
1
i
_

S
i
(t),

H(t)
_
=
ge
2mc
1
i

j
B
j
(t)
_

S
i
(t),

S
j
(t)
_
=
ge
2mc
1
i

j
B
j
(t)i
ijk

S
k
(t)
And in vector form:
d

S(t)
dt
=
ge
2mc

S(t)

B(t)
(2)
The time evolution operator reads:
U(t) = e
it

H/
= e
it0Sz/
=
_
e
it0/2
0
0 e
it0/2
_
where
0
=
geB0
2mc
. The rotation operator is given by:
R(t) = e
i

S/
where

is the rotation vector: its direction and magnitude are axis and the angle or rotation respectively.
Comparing the two we get:

= t
geB
0
2mc
z =
0
t z
The eect of the constant magnetic eld is that it causes counter clockwise (if
0
> 0) Larmor precession
around the z axis with angular frequency
0
.
(3)
The easiest way to nd this n is to think as follows:
_

S
_
when calculated for a spin up state will give

2
z.
Therefore by just evaluating the expectation value of the spin for a spin eigenstate along a certain direction,
we can get this direction. Using this particular wavevector and evaluating the spin expectation value gives:
2

S
_
= n = cos sin x + sinsin y + cos z
The spin operator is:

S =

2

1
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
and the Pauli matrices are:

x
=
_
0 1
1 0
_

y
=
_
0 i
i 0
_

z
=
_
1 0
0 1
_
From this:

S n =

2
_
cos e
i
sin
e
i
sin cos
_
Let
_
a
b
_
be an eigenvector with eigenvalue

2
then:
a cos +be
i
sin = a
ae
i
sin b cos = b
The two equations are not independent. Bringing the all terms containing a in the same side and using
1 cos = 2 sin
2
2
, 1 + cos = 2 cos
2
2
and sin = 2 sin

2
cos

2
gives:
be
i
cos

2
= a sin

2
ae
i
sin

2
= b cos

2
It is easy to demonstrate that both equations are satised by:
a = e
i/2
cos

2
b = e
i/2
sin

2
and also these expressions satisfy the normalization condition |a|
2
+ |b|
2
= 1. Applying the diagonal time
evolution operator on this state gives:
|(t) =

U(t) |(0) =
_
e
i(0t)/2
cos

2
e
i(it)/2
sin

2
_
Therefore applying the time evolution operator precesses n around the z axis.
(4)
The eect of the exponential factor e
it

Sz/
is to precess the wavevector on which it is applied with a
frequency around the z axis. By doing this we hope to undo the rotation of the B
1
magnetic eld.
Lets take the time derivative of the transformed wavevector:
i
d
dt
|

(t) =

S
z
e
it

Sz/
|(t) +e
it

Sz/

H(t) |(t)
= (

H

(t) +

S
z
) |

(t)
2
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
where the transformed Hamiltonian is:

(t) = e
it

Sz/

H(t)e
it

Sz/
The B
0
part of the hamiltonian commutes with

S
z
and this transformation will leave it invariant. The
B
1
part of the Hamiltonian in matrix form is:

0
B
1
B
0

2
_
0 e
it
e
it
0
_
Also
e
it

Sz/
=
_
e
it/2
0
0 e
it/2
_
After performing the matrix multiplications:

(t) =
0

2
_
1 B
1
/B
0
B
1
/B
0
1
_
=
0

2
_

z
+
B
1
B
0

x
_
Transforming into the rotated frame deprives the Hamiltonian from the time dependence. The time
evolution operator is:
U

(t) = e
it(

H+

Sz)/
= e
it((0)

Sz0

SxB1/B0)/
The B
1
component of the magnetic eld is frozen to its initial value.
(5)
Lets revert to the original frame:
|(t) = e
it

Sz/
e
it((0)

Sz0

SxB1/B0)/
|(0)
where |(t) = |+. The rst term of the right hand side is diagonal whereas the exponent of the second
term is of the form:

it
2
M =
it
2
_

0

0
B
1
/B
0

0
B
1
/B
0
(
0
)
_
=
it
2
_
a b
b a
_
There is a standard technique to evaluate exponents of matrices and this is through the the characteristic
polynomial:
(a x)(a x) b
2
= 0
From which we get that
x
2
= b
2
a
2
=
2
where
=
_
b
2
a
2
=
0

_
1

0
_
2
+
_
B
1
B
0
_
2
Since every matrix satises its characteristic polynomial we can replace every even power of a matrix
with a constant:
e

it
2
M
= cos
tM
2
i sin
tM
2
= 1cos
t
2
i
M

sin
t
2
where 1 is the unit matrix. Carrying out the matrix multiplications:
|(t) =
_ _
cos
t
2
+i
0

sin
t
2
_
e
it/2
i
0

B0
B1
sin
t
2
e
it/2
_
3
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
(6)
In the resonant case =
B1
B0
. The probability that the system is in a down-spin state is:

2
0

2
B
2
0
B
2
1
sin
2 t
2
. At
t = 0 it is zero by construction. The rst time that it will become 1 is after some time T:
T =

=
B
0
B
1
2 Charged particle on a ring as a two level system
(1)
Lets consider the eigenstates of the angular momentum operator:
|m =
1

2
e
im
The corresponding angular momentum eigenvalue is m. The periodic boundary conditions imply that:
+ 2|m = |m e
i2m
= 1
and therefore m is an integer. Applying the Hamiltonian on these states will give:
|H|m =
1

2
2MR
2
_

0
_
2
e
im
=
1

2
2MR
2
_
imi

0
_
2
e
im
=

2
2MR
2
_
m

0
_
2
|m
Which demonstrates that the angular momentum eigenstates are energy eigenstates with
E
m
=

2
2MR
2
_
m

0
_
2
As a function of m the energy is a parabola.
(2)
With no loss of generality we can write:

0
= m
0
+a
where 1/2 < a 1/2. Clearly m
0
= round
_

0
_
is the integer that is closer to

0
. With this denition
the ground state energy is for some m = m
0
and is equal to E
G
=

2
2MR
2
a
2
which is a periodic function of

0
with period one. There are two extreme cases: a = 0 which means that

0
is an integer. In this case
there is a unique ground state with E
G
= 0 and all the other states are twofold degenerate (the states with
4
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
-2 -1 1 2

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
8 MR
2

2
Figure 1: The ground state energy as a function of

0
. At the tips where

0
=
1
2
+ m the ground state is
twofold degenerate and mixes the states |m and |m1 with energy

2
8MR
2
. Elsewhere the ground state
|m, where m is the closest integer to

0
, is not degenerate.
m = q +

0
and m = q +

0
have the same energy). Another extreme case in the one in which a = 1/2 or
that

0
is an odd number. Then this number is at the same distance from two consecutive integers m
0
and
m
0
+ 1. The ground state is twofold degenerate in this case because:
E
m0+1
=

2
2MR
2
_
m
0
+ 1 m
0

1
2
_
2
= E
m0
=

2
8MR
2
Everywhere else the energy is going to uctuate between 0 and

2
8MR
2
with period 1. At each period the
energy is described by a parabola centered at some integer as shown in gure. At the tips there is twofold
degeneracy.
(3)
The |m are eigenstates of the current with eigenvalues:
j
(m)

=

0
2MR
_
m

0
_
For the ground state

0
= m
0
+a and m = m
0
in which case:
j
G

=

0
2MR
a
5
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
-3 -2 -1 1 2 3

0
-1
-0.5
0.5
1
2 MR j

0
Figure 2: The ground state current as a function of

0
. The discontinuity is because of the ground state
reconstruction.
The current will be a period function of

0
with period 1. For a = 0 the current is zero and for a = 1/2
it gets its maximum value of
0
4MR
.
(4)
Lets set

0
= 1/2 + where 1. There are two (almost) degenerate states that we will denote |m = 0
and |m = 1 respectively with energy

2
2MR
2
_

0
_
2
and

2
2MR
2
_
1

0
_
2
respectively.
The

H
0
part of the Hamiltonian that does not contain the electric eld is of course diagonal:

H
0
=

2
2MR
2
_
_
_
_
1

0
_
2
0
0
_

0
_
2
_
_
_
=

2
2MR
2
1
2
_
_

0
_
2
+
_
1

0
_
2
_
1 +

2
2MR
2
1
2
_
_
1

0
_
2

0
_
2
_

z
Where the basis for the matrix is (|m = 1 , |m = 0) (in that order).
6
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
The part of the hamiltonian

H
1
that depends on the electric eld can be written as:

H
1
= eR
1
2
(E
x
iE
y
)e
i
eR
1
2
(E
x
+iE
y
)e
i
Clearly the e
i
connects the m = 0 with the m = 1 state and the e
i
the m = 1 with the m = 0 state.
Therefore:

H
1
= eR
1
2
_
0 E
x
iE
y
E
x
+iE
y
0
_
= eR
1
2
(E
x

x
+E
y

y
)
The four coecients have units of energy and are:
a
0
=

2
2MR
2
1
2
_
_

0
_
2
+
_
1

0
_
2
_

2
8MR
2
a
1
=

2
2MR
2
1
2
_

0
_
2
+
_
1

0
_
2
_


2
2MR
2

a
2
=
1
2
eRE
x
a
3
=
1
2
eRE
y
Note to the students: if your expressions are dierent and you did not make a mistake it is because you
swapped the m = 0 and m = 1 basis states.
(5)
The a
0
constant is nothing but a universal shift of the energy and it will be ignored (1 commutes with
anything anyway). The other three terms can be written as:

H =

B

S
where

S = (
x
,
y
,
z
) /2 is the eective spin and

B plays the role of a (rescaled) magnetic eld measured
in units of frequency with components:
B
x
=
eR

E
x
B
y
=
eR

E
y
B
z
=

MR
2
_
1
2

0
_
In the spin-picture the spin up state corresponds to the |m = 1 and the spin down to the |m = 0 so
that it is trivial to switch between the two pictures.
The equation of motion of

S is the same as in Problem 1 (if we ignore some coecients):

i
d
dt

S
i
=
_

S
i
, H
_
=

j
B
j
_

S
i
,

S
j
_
=

j
B
j
i
ijk

S
k
7
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
or
d
dt

S =

B

S
This equation denes the counter clockwise precession of the polarization

S around the axis dened by

the eective magnetic eld. The precession frequency is just the magnitude of the eective magnetic eld:
=

=
_
e
2
R
2

2
_
E
2
x
+E
2
y
_
+

2
M
2
R
4

2
To demonstrate the precession even further one can follow the analysis of the lecture notes (Spin, page
24).
(6)
Now the time dependent eective Hamiltonian is:
H =

2
2MR
2
_

0
_
2
eRE
x
cos cos t
We can carry out the same procedure to get a Hamiltonian

H =

B(t)

S where the uctuating magnetic

eld is:
B
x
=
eR

E
x
cos t
B
y
= 0
B
z
=

MR
2

where to simplify notation I set =

_
1
2


0
_
.
The boundary condition of the problem is that at t = 0 the system is in the spin down eective state (or
m = 0 state in the original picture) and we are asked to evaluate the probability that it appears in the spin
up state after some time T. This spin ips probability is give by:
P(T) =

_
|

U(T, 0)|
_

2
It is important to point out that if is comparable to the energy dierence between the two states m = 0
and m = 1 and other excited states, which is is of the order

2
MR
2
, the electric eld will cause excitations and
the simple two-state picture is no longer valid. We will have to assume that:


2
MR
2
Although this problem looks very similar to the resonance problem.
In matrix form the Hamiltonian is:

H =
_

MR
2

eR

E
x
cos t
eR

E
x
cos t

MR
2

_
8
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
Lets go to the rotated frame as we did in Problem 1:
|

(t) = e
it z/2
|(t)
The equation of motion is again:
i
d
dt
|

(t) = (

H

(t) +

S
z
) |

(t)
The rotated hamiltonian is:

(t) +

S
z
=

2
_

MR
2

eR

E
x
e
it
cos t
eR

E
x
e
it
cos t

MR
2

_
We will ignore the time dependent exponentials in this expression to get a time independent hamiltonian:

=

2
_

MR
2

eR

E
x
eR

E
x


MR
2

_
=

2
_
B
z
B
x
B
x
B
z
_
This is the same problem as the one we solved in problem 1, but with dierent parameters. More
specically if we set
0
= B
z
, B
0
= B
z
, B
1
= B
x
and =
_
(B
z
+)
2
+B
2
x
we can connect the two
problems. In part 6 we evaluated the probability of a spin ip and found it equal to

2
0

2
B
2
0
B
2
1
sin
2 t
2

1

2
B
2
z
B
2
x
sin
2 t
2
. Therefore the probability is a periodic function of time with:
T
0
= 2/ =
2
_
_

MR
2
+
_
2
+
_
eR

E
x
_
2

2
_

2
+
_
eR

E
x
_
2
3 Harmonic Oscillators and Angular Momentum
As a clarifying note we have to mention that

i
is the element (, ) (row , column ) of the i
th
Pauli
matrix. Also the creation/annihilation operators satisfy the commutation relations:
_
a

i
, a

j
_
=
_
a

i
, a

j
_
= 0
_
a
i
, a

j
_
=
ij
(1)
Lets evaluate the commutator:
_

J
i
,

J
j
_
=

2
4

_
a

, a

j
=

2
4

_
a

_
a

, a

_
a

+ a

_
a

, a

j
9
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
=

2
4

j
=

2
4
_
_

j
_
_
=

2
4

,
_
_

[
i

j
]

[
j

i
]

_
_
=

2
4

,
[
i

j

j

i
]

=

2
4

,
2
ijk

k
a

=
=
ijk

J
k
Indeed the three J
i
follow the angular momentum algebra.
(2)
It is instructive to write down explicitly all the member of the algebra:

J
x
=

2
_
a

1
a
2
+ a

2
a
1
_

J
y
=

2
_
i a

1
a
2
+i a

2
a
1
_

J
z
=

2
_

N
1

N
2
_

J
+
=

J
x
+i

J
y
= a

1
a
2

=

J
x
i

J
y
= a

2
a
1
where

N
i
= a

i
a
i
. Note that J
z
gives us the quantum number m.
We will use the identity:

J
2
=

J
2
z
+
1
2
_

J
+

J

+

J

J
+
_
=
2
_
1
4
_

N
1

N
2
_
2
+
1
2

N
1
_
1 +

N
2
_
+
1
2

N
2
_
1 +

N
1
_
_
=
2
_
1
4
_

N
1
+

N
2
_
2
+
1
2

N
1
+
1
2

N
2
_
=
2

N
2
_

N
2
+ 1
_
where

N =

N
1
+

N
2
is the total number operator. We see that the states with particular occupation
numbers N
i
correspond angular momentum eigenstates. The angular momentum quantum number is j =
N
2
.
10
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
Also since

J
z
=

2
_

N
1

N
2
_
= m the

J
z
quantum number is m =
N1N2
2
:
j =
N
1
+N
2
2
m =
N
1
N
2
2
Since N
i
0 then j 0 as it should. Also for xed j we have the constraint that N
i
2j. Also
m = j N
2
. We can vary 0 N
2
2j at integer steps to get j m j.
(3)
We want to ll the two oscillators with N
1
= j+m and N
2
= jm particles. Let |N
1
, N
2

O
= |j +m, j m
O
be the |j, m eigenstate (The index O distinguishes between the angular momentum and the oscillator
eigenstates). Lets apply the raising operator

J
+
= a

1
a
2
on this state:

J
+
|j, m = a

1
a
2
|j +m, j m
O
=
_
(j +m+ 1)(j m) |j +m+ 1, j m1
O
=
_
j(j + 1) m(m+ 1) |j, m+ 1
In the same transparent way we can derive the equation for the lowering operator

J

= a

2
a
1
:

|j, m = a

2
a
1
|j +m, j m
O
=
_
(j +m)(j m+ 1) |j +m+ 1, j m1
O
=
_
j(j + 1) m(m1) |j, m1
(4)
The matrix element of

K

= a

1
a

2
and

K = a
2
a
1
can be found after we apply them on particular states
|j, m = |j +m, j m
O
:

|j, m =
_
(j +m+ 1)(j m+ 1) |j +m+ 1, j m+ 1
O
=
_
(j + 1)
2
m
2
|j + 1, m

K|j, m =
_
(j +m)(j m) |j +m1, j m1
O
=
_
j
2
m
2
|j 1, m
As we see

K

increases the total angular momentum j by one while keeping m constant. The adjoint

K
decreases the angular momentum by one and keeps m constant. We can express this as matrix elements:
j

, m

|

K

|j, m =
m,m

j

,j+1
_
(j + 1)
2
m
2
j

, m

|

K|j, m =
m,m

j

,j1
_
j
2
m
2
Addition of spin angular momenta
(1)
There are two states for each spin and 2 2 = 4 states in the product basis. The product basis has states
|m
1
|m
2
where each m
i
takes values 1/2. A common way to denote these 4 states is:
| , | , | , |
11
Solutions to Homework 3 Phys581, Spring 2007
(2)
The total angular momentum will take values from|1/2 1/2| = 0 to |1/2 + 1/2| = 1 therefore there are
only two possibilities: j = 0 (singlet) or j = 1 (triplet). Formally:
1
2

1
2
= 1 0
(3)
We start from | = |j = 1, m = 1 which has m = 1 and therefore corresponds to j = 1. Similarly the |
state corresponds to j = 1 with m = 1. To get the m = 0 triplet state we will apply the

J

=

J
(1)

+

J
(2)

|j = 1, m = 1 =

J
(1)

1
2
_

1
2
_
+

1
2
_

J
(2)

1
2
_

_
1(1 + 1) 1(1 1) |j = 1, m = 0 =

1
2
_
1
2
+ 1
_

1
2
_
1
2
1
__

1
2
_

1
2
_
+

1
2
_

1
2
__

2 |j = 1, m = 0 =

1
2
_

1
2
_
+

1
2
_

1
2
_
We can summarize this as:
|j = 1, m = 0 =
| +|

2
Now we have constructed the whole j = 1 space. The j = 0 space contains exactly one state which is
some linear combination of m = 0 states:
|j = 0, m = 0 = a

1
2
_

1
2
_
+b

1
2
_

1
2
_
This state must be orthogonal to the |j = 1, m = 0:
0 = j = 1, m = 0|j = 0, m = 0 =
a +b

2
Therefore a = b =
1

2
where we made use of the normalization condition. To summarize the triplet
states are:
|j = 1, m = 1 = |
|j = 1, m = 0 =
| +|

2
|j = 1, m = 1 = |
|j = 0, m = 0 =
| |

2
and you will see these equations a ~billion times before the age of 25.
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