Harmonic Oscillator

Classical Harmonic Oscillator
Quantum Harmonic oscillator

Science-II
Harmonic oscillator
Palash Pandya
IIIT-Hyderabad
January 28, 2014
Palash Pandya Science-II Harmonic oscillator
1
2
Introduction-I
For a motion to be called as Harmonic motion, there has to
be a restoring force that returns the system to the equilibrium
conguration when the system is disturbed. For example, a
particle of mass m attached to a spring.
A special case for the harmonic oscillator is when the restoring
force on the system is linear (linear dependence on the
displacement):
F = kx (Hookes law) (1)
Which can be written in the dierential form, using second
law of motion, as
kx = m
d
2
x
dt
2
(2)
Introduction-II
Which can also be expressed as:
d
2
x
dt
2
+
k
m
x = 0 (3)
Solutions for this equation are of the form,
x = Acos(t +) (4)
where A is the amplitude and = 2 =
k
m
is the angular
frequency.
Harmonic motion is important both in classical and quantum
physics because every oscillating motion with very small
displacement is modelled as a harmonic oscillator.
For the quantum case, we now write the Schrodinger equation
with the potential V(x) =
1
2
kx
2
,
d
2
dx
2
+
2m
E
1
2
kx
2
= 0 (5)
Now there are two ways of solving this equation,
Ladder operator method (Creation & annihilation operators)
Power series method
Well be using the Power series method.
Power series method
d
2
dx
2
+
2m
E
1
2
kx
2
= 0
We simplify the above equation by making the following
substitutions,
y =
km
1
2
x =
2m
x (6)
and,
=
2E
m
k
=
2E
h
(7)
Power series method
In doing these substitutions, we have replaced x and E by
dimensionless quantities. After the substitution the equation
becomes:
d
2
dy
2
+ ( y
2
) = 0 (8)
The solutions to this equation are limited by the condition, that
0 as y , so that
||
2
dy = 1 (9)
Otherwise the wave-function cannot represent a real particle.
Power series method
When we consider large values of y, the equation can be written as:
d
2
dy
2
y
2
(10)
And the solutions will be approximately of the form of,
(y) Ae
y
2
/2
+ Be
y
2
/2
(11)
In the solution the B term has to go to zero as it not normalisable.
And A is a function h(y), to counter the exponential nature of the
second term of the solution, = h(y)e
y
2
/2
.
Power series method
After calculating
d
dy
and
d
2
dy
2
from the solution = h(y)e
y
2
/2
,
we substitute in the simplied Schrodinger equation (8) to obtain a
dierential equation in h(y).
d
2
h
dy
2
2y
dh
dy
+ ( 1)h = 0 (12)
Solutions are proposed in form of power series in y:
h(y) = a
0
+ a
1
y + a
2
y
2
+. . . =
j =0
a
j
y
j
(13)
substitute
dh
dy
and
d
2
h
dy
2
in (12).
Power series method
The substitution results in:
j =0
[(j + 1)(j + 2)a
j +2
2ja
j
+ ( 1)a
j
]y
j
= 0 (14)
Which implies that coecients of each of the power of y has to go
to zero,
a
j +2
=
2j + 1
(j + 1)(j + 2)
a
j
(15)
Starting from a
0
or a
1
this recursion formula will generate even or
odd coecients respectively. For one of the series (even or odd) to
terminate, a
n+2
has to be zero, the other being zero from the start.
Power series method
Thus the condition for physically acceptable solutions is,
= 2n + 1 (16)
Since = 2E/h, we have the expression,
E
n
= (n +
1
2
)h (17)
Which gives the quantized energy levels of the harmonic oscillator,
with steps of h or . When n = 0, The energy does not go to
zero, but
E
0
= h =
1
2
h =
1
2
(18)
This is called the Zero-point Energy, the lowest value of energy
that can be achieved.
Power series method
Substituting = 2n + 1 in the recursion formula,
a
j +2
=
2(n j )
(j + 1)(j + 2)
a
j
(19)
From here, if n = 0 and a
1
= 0 with j = 0 gives a
2
= 0, so
h
0
(y) = a
0
, and hence,
0
(y) = a
0
e
y
2
/2
(20)
Now n = 1, a
0
= 0 and j = 1 gives a
3
= 0, so h
1
(y) = a
1
y, and
hence,
1
(y) = a
1
ye
y
2
/2
(21)
Power series method
For n = 2, j = 0 gives a
2
= 2a
0
and j = 2 gives a
4
= 0, so
h
2
(y) = a
0
(1 2y
2
) and
2
(y) = a
0
(1 2y
2
)e
y
2
/2
(22)
and so on.
In general, h
n
(y) are polynomials of degree n and are called
Hermite polynomials. First few are listed:
h
0
= 1
h
1
= 2y
h
2
= 4y
2
2
h
3
= 8y
3
12y
h
4
= 16y
4
48y
2
+ 12
h
5
= 32y
4
160y
2
+ 120y
Power series method
With this convention, the normalized stationary states of the
harmonic oscillator are,
n
(x) =
2m
1/4
1
2
n
n!
H
n
(y)e
y
2
/2
(23)

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