| course |
course_year |
question_number |
tags |
title |
year |
Quantum Mechanics |
IB |
68 |
IB |
2018 |
Quantum Mechanics |
|
Paper 3, Section I, B |
2018 |
What is meant by the statement that an operator is Hermitian?
Consider a particle of mass $m$ in a real potential $V(x)$ in one dimension. Show that the Hamiltonian of the system is Hermitian.
Starting from the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, show that
$$\frac{d}{d t}\langle\hat{x}\rangle=\frac{1}{m}\langle\hat{p}\rangle, \quad \frac{d}{d t}\langle\hat{p}\rangle=-\left\langle V^{\prime}(\hat{x})\right\rangle$$
where $\hat{p}$ is the momentum operator and $\langle\hat{A}\rangle$ denotes the expectation value of the operator $\hat{A}$.