L13

5.
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Angular Momentum
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Angular Momentum
2 and L commute, they share common eigenfunctions. These functions are Since L z
extremely important for the description of angular momentum problems they determine the allowed values of angular momentum and, for systems like the Rigid Rotor, the energies available to the system. The first things we would like to know are the eigenvalues associated with these eigenfunctions. We will denote the 2 and L by and , respectively so that: eigenvalues of L z 2 Y ( , ) = Y ( , ) L Y ( , ) = Y ( , ) L

z
For brevity, in what follows we will omit the dependence of the eigenstates on and so that the above equations become 2Y = Y Y = Y L L z It is convenient to define the raising and lowering operators (note the similarity to the Harmonic oscillator!): L iL L x y Which satisfy the commutation relations: 2 L L L + , L = 2Lz z , L = L , L = 0 These relations are relatively easy to prove using the commutation relations weve already derived: 2 L L L L x , L y = iLz y , Lz = iL x z , L x = iLy , Lz = 0 For example: L z , L = Lz , L x i Lz , L y
= iL y i ( iL x ) = L x iLy = L
: The raising and lowering operators have a peculiar effect on the eigenvalue of L z Lz ( LY ) = ( Lz , L + L Lz )Y = ( L + L )Y = ( ) ( LY ) (L ) raises (lowers) the eigenvalue of L by , hence the names. Since Thus, L + z 2 they do not change the value the raising and lowering operators commute with L
of and so we can write Y Y L

are evenly spaced! and so the eigenvalues of L z
What are the limits on this ladder of eigenvalues? Recall that for the harmonic oscillator, we found that there was a minimum eigenvalue and the eigenstates could
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be created by successive applications of the raising operator to the lowest state. There is also a minimum eigenvalue in this case. To see this, note that 2 + L 2 = L 2 + L 2 0 L
x y x y
This result simply reflects the fact that if youtake any observable operator and square it, youmust get back a positive number. To get a negative value for the 2 would imply an imaginary eigenvalue of L , which is 2 or L or L average value of L x y x y impossible since these operators are Hermitian. Besides, what would an imaginary angular momentum mean? We now apply the above equation for the specific wavefunction Y : 2 L 2 + L 2 Y = Y * L 2 Y 0 Y * L x y z
) ( = Y * ( 2 ) Y
= 2
Hence 2 and therefore . Which means that there are both
maximum and minimum values that can take on for a given . If we denote these values by max and min, respectively, then it is clear that
max +Y L =0
min Y L = 0.
We can then use this knowledge and some algebra tricks trick to determine the relationship between and max (or min). First note that: L max = 0 L min = 0 L L +Y + Y and L : We can expand this explicitly in terms of L
x x
2 L x
2 L y
L i( L y x Lx Ly )
)
z
Y max
=0
2 L x
min 2 + i( L L +L =0 y y x L x L y ) Y
However, this is not the most convenient form for the operators, because we dont gives when acting on Y . However, we can rewrite the same or L know what L x y 2 expression in terms of L and L :
(
So then we have
2 + L 2 i( L L L x y y x Lx Ly ) iL z
2 L 2 L z
( (
2 L 2 L Y max = 0 L z z
2 max
max = 0
L + L )Y = 0 (L ( + ) = 0
2 2 z
min
2 min
min
= max ( max + ) = min ( min )
max = min l
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where in the last line we have simply defined a new variable, l, that is dimensionless (notice that has the units of angular momentum). So combining these minimum and maximum values we have that l l . Further, since we can get from the lowest to the highest eigenvalue in increments of by successive applications of the raising operator, it is clear that the difference between the highest and lowest values [ j ( j ) = 2l ] must be an integer multiple of . Thus, l itself must either be an integer or a halfinteger. Putting all these facts together, we conclude (Define m / ):
2Y m = 2l(l + 1)Y m L l l
zY m = mY m L l l
3 l = 0, 1 2 ,1, 2 ,2...
and
m = l, l + 1...l 1, l
where we have replaced with l and with m so that Y becomes Ylm . Also, in the 2 = 2l ( l + 1) implies l 0 . These are the first equation, we have noted that 0 L fundamental eigenvalue equations for all forms of angular momentum. Notice that there is a difference here from what we saw for the rigid rotor. There, we had:
2 EJ = J ( J + 1) 2I
J = 0, 1, 2,...
where, as a reminder, the quantum number J for the rigid rotor is equivalent to the quantum number l define above. Here, the dependence of the energy on J 2 . The factor of 1 / 2 I E J ( J + 1) is the same as we found in our derivation for L 2 / 2 I rather than simply arises from the fact that the rigid rotor Hamiltonian is L 2 . The real difference is that half integer values of J do not appear for the L rigid rotor. At first, youmight think this means we made a mistake in our derivation above and that l should only be an integer and not a half integer. However, there is no error. The difference arises because our derivation above is valid for any kind of angular momentum. Thus, while certain values of l may not appear for certain types of angular momentum (e.g. they dont occur for the rigid rotor) we will see later on that they can appear for other types of angular momentum. Most notably, electrons have an intrinsic spin angular momentum with l=1 . Thus, while individual systems may have additional restrictions on the 2
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allowed values of l, angular momentum states always obey the above eigenvalue relations.

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5.

of and so we can write Y Y L

Hence 2 and therefore . Which means that there are both

= max ( max + ) = min ( min )

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