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Exercise 6

The document outlines topics covered in Week 6 of a Quantum Mechanics course, focusing on spin precession in the Heisenberg representation and the ammonia molecule as a two-level system. It includes calculations related to spin operators, Hamiltonians, eigenvalues, and time evolution in quantum states. Additionally, it discusses the effects of an electric field on the ammonia molecule's Hamiltonian and the resulting forces on the molecule's states.

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Gabriele Falcinelli
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3 views3 pages

Exercise 6

The document outlines topics covered in Week 6 of a Quantum Mechanics course, focusing on spin precession in the Heisenberg representation and the ammonia molecule as a two-level system. It includes calculations related to spin operators, Hamiltonians, eigenvalues, and time evolution in quantum states. Additionally, it discusses the effects of an electric field on the ammonia molecule's Hamiltonian and the resulting forces on the molecule's states.

Uploaded by

Gabriele Falcinelli
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Quantum Mechanics I

Week 6
Spring Semester 2025

1 Spin precession in the Heisenberg representation


Consider the problem of spin precession already seen in the course. The Hamiltonian of
the system is:  
eB
Ĥ = − Ŝz = ω Ŝz . (1.1)
mc
A. We will solve this problem in the Heisenberg picture.

(a) First, calculate the exponential of the spin operators eiωSα , where α = x, y, z and ω
is a real constant. This operator will be important when working in the Heisenberg
picture.

(b) Using the Hamiltonian of Eq. (??), write the Heisenberg equations of motion for
the time-dependent operators Ŝx (t), Ŝy (t) and Ŝz (t).

(c) Solve the differential equations from the previous question, to obtain Ŝx , Ŝy and Ŝz
as a function of time. Consider appropriate initial conditions.

B. An electron is subjected to a uniform and time-independent magnetic field B = Bz.


At t = 0, the electron is an eigenstate of Ŝn ( ≡ Ŝ·n) with eigenvalue ℏ2 , i.e. |ψ⟩ = |Sn ; +⟩.
Here n is a unit vector on the plane x−z, and can be parameterized by n = (sin θ, 0, cos θ).

(d) Obtain the probability of finding the electron in the state sx = ℏ


2
as a function of
time.

(e) Find the mean value of Ŝx as a function of time.

(f) Show that the solution corresponds to what you expect for the two extreme values
θ = 0 and θ = π2 .

2 The Ammonia molecule


The Ammonia molecule (NH3 ) is an interesting case of complex system that nonetheless
admits a relatively simple description in terms of a two level system. In the following we
will make the assumption that we have a single molecule at rest, that is spinning around
the axis formed by the triangular plane containing the Hydrogen atoms and the Nitrogen
atom. (see Figure ?? for a visualization of the pyramidal structure of this molecule). In
this situation, there are two equivalent positions for the Nitrogen atom: either in the
upper part of the Hydrogen plane or in the lower part.

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Figure 1: The ammonia molecule has two equivalent geometrical arrangements, one with
the nitrogen up (left) and one with the nitrogen down (right).

A. Restricting our attention to only these two possible geometric configurations, we are
going to associate two basis states |1〉 and |2〉, respectively to the up and down Nitrogen
configurations, thus
   
1 0
|1⟩ = , |2⟩ = . (2.1)
0 1
The Hamiltonian of the system is:
 
E0 −A
H= . (2.2)
−A E0

The two configurations are equivalent, thus the average energy E0 of these two states is the
same. The off-diagonal element A is a real-valued, positive phenomenological constant,
and represents the process that transforms one state to the other. This follows from the
fact that in nature, both configurations are observed.

(a) Find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of this Hamiltonian.

(b) Find the matrix representation of the unitary time-evolution operator in the original
basis {|1⟩ , |2⟩}.

(c) Verify that this is indeed a unitary matrix.

(d) Given an arbitrary state at time t = 0, |ψ⟩ = c1 (0) |1⟩ + c2 (0) |2⟩, calculate the
coefficients c1 (t), c2 (t) for the time-dependent state |ψ(t)⟩ = c1 (t) |1⟩ + c2 (t) |2⟩ in
the Schrödinger representation. What are the coefficients for the initial conditions
c1 (0) = 1, c2 (0) = 0?

(e) Suppose that at time t = 0 the molecule is known to be in the configuration |1⟩
(with nitrogen up). What are the probabilities of observing the configurations |1⟩
(nitrogen up) and |2⟩ of the Ammonia molecule as a function of time?

B. The charge distribution in the ammonia molecule is not spatially symmetric, specifically
the electronic charge tends to be closer to the nitrogen atom. As a consequence, there is

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en effective electric dipole moment µ
⃗ E pointing from the nitrogen atom to the hydrogens
plane.

Figure 2: The ammonia molecule in the presence of an electric field in the z direction.
The figure also shows that the dipole moment has two opposite directions in the states
|1⟩ and |2⟩.

The interaction energy is:


⃗
UE = −⃗µE · E. (2.3)
We consider an electric field in the z direction, i.e. E⃗ = Ez ẑ.

(a) What is the new Hamiltonian of the system?

(b) What are the eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian


√ H ′ ? Consider the case of weak electric
field µE Ez ≪ E0 . Hint: You may use 1 + ϵ ≃ 1 + ϵ/2.

(c) An interesting consequence of the presence of the electric field is that we can use
it to separate the two states |1⟩ and |2⟩ with a device similar to the Stern and
Gerlach device (with the important difference that here we are using the electric
field rather than the magnetic field to perform the separation). We consider a
spatially inhomogeneous electric field. Find the force acting on the molecule, when
the latter is in one of the two states we found earlier.

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