Quantum Physics 2011/12

Solutions to Tutorial Sheet 2: Perturbations

A note about notation
In perturbation theory we need distinguish between dierent unperturbed systems (hydro-
gen, square well, SHO) perturbed and unperturbed systems, order of perturbation theory
and the quantum numbers dening a particular state.
There is no unique notation in quantum mechanics: dierent authors use dierent symbols
for the same thing. The best you can do is be sure that you properly dene your notation
in your answers, and understand what it means.
1. A quantum dot is a self assembled nanoparticle in which a single electron state can
be conned. A model for such an object is a particle moving in one dimension in the
potential
V (x) = , |x| > a, V (x) = V
0
cos(x/2a), |x| a
Identify an appropriate unperturbed system and perturbation term. The potential is an
innite square well with a bump at the bottom. The appropriate unperturbed system
is the innite square well without the bump. The energy scale of the bump is set by
V
0
, so perturbation theory will be valid provided this is less than the energy dierence
between square-well states, i.e.
V
0
<<
h
2

2
8ma
2
(2n + 1)
For suciently large n, this will always be true. But were only asked about n=1 and
n=2.
Calculate the energies of the two lowest states to rst order in perturbation theory.
We write

H =

H
0
+

V
where

H
0
is the Hamiltonian of the 1-dimensional innite
square well:

H
0
=
p
2
2m
+ U(x)
and
U(x) =
_
|x| > a
0 |x| a
a a
U(x)
with known exact solution: the eigenvalues of

H
0
are given by
E
(0)
n
=
h
2

2
n
2
8ma
2
, n = 1, 2, 3,
and the corresponding eigenfunctions are
u
n
(x) =
1

a
_
cos
sin
_
_
nx
2a
_
_
n odd
n even
The perturbation is

V = V
0
cos
_
x
2a
_
|x| a
and to rst order in perturbation theory, the energy shifts are
given by
a a
U(x)+H(x)
E
n
= u
n
|

V |u
n
=
_
a
a
u

n
(x)

V u
n
(x) dx
For the ground state:
E
1
=
V
0
a
_
a
a
cos
_
x
2a
_
cos
_
x
2a
_
cos
_
x
2a
_
dx =
V
0
a
_
a
a
cos
3
_
x
2a
_
dx
=
2V
0

_
+/2
/2
cos
3
d where
x
2a
=
2V
0

_
+1
1
_
1 sin
2

_
d(sin ) using the identity cos
2
1 sin
2

=
2V
0

_
sin
1
3
sin
3

_
+1
1
Thus
E
1
=
8V
0
3
Similarly for the rst excited state (n = 2):
E
2
=
V
0
a
_
a
a
sin
_
x
a
_
cos
_
x
2a
_
sin
_
x
a
_
dx
=
2V
0

_
+/2
/2
sin
2
2 cos d where
x
2a
=
8V
0

_
+/2
/2
sin
2
cos
3
d using the identity sin 2 2 sin cos
=
8V
0

_
+1
1
sin
2

_
1 sin
2

_
d(sin )
=
8V
0

_
1
3
sin
3

1
5
sin
5

_
+1
1
Thus
E
2
=
32V
0
15
What is the sign of V
0
?
Since the electron is attracted to the atoms comprising the dot, it is likely to be more
strongly bound at the centre. Hence V
0
will be negative.
State two ways in which the colour of a material containing dots can be shifted towards
the red.
To vary the colour, we need to change the dierence between energy levels. The sim-
plest way to do this is to use a larger dot, increasing a in the unperturbed energies
and hence reducing (redshifting) their energy. Alternately, we just saw that the per-
turbation lowered the ground state by more than the excited state: thus a smaller V
0
(i.e. a material which less strongly bound the electron) would give a red shift.
2. A particle moves in one dimension in the potential
V (x) = , |x| > a, V (x) = V
0
sin(x/a), |x| a
show that the rst order energy shift is zero;
Just as in the previous question, we write

H =

H
0
+

V
where

H
0
is the Hamiltonian of the 1-dimensional innite square well.
The rst order formula for the energy shift is then
E
n
= n|

V |n =
_
a
a
u

n
(x)

V u
n
(x) dx
Thus
E
n
=
V
0
a
_
a
a
_
cos
sin
_
_
nx
2a
_
sin
_
x
a
_

_
cos
sin
_
_
nx
2a
_
dx
_
n odd
n even
We observe that the integrand is always an odd function of x regardless of the value
of n, and hence the integral from a to a must vanish. Hence
E
n
0

*
obtain an expression for the second order correction to the energy of the ground
state.
At second order, the correction to the ground-state energy is given by
E
(2)
1
=

m=1
|m|

V |1|
2
_
E
(0)
1
E
(0)
m
_
For m odd:
m|

V |1 =
V
0
a
_
a
a
cos
_
mx
2a
_
sin
_
x
a
_
cos
_
x
2a
_
dx 0
because the integrand is an odd function of x.
For m even, no such argument applies and we have to work hard to evaluate the
required integral!
m|

V |1 =
V
0
a
_
a
a
sin
_
mx
2a
_
sin
_
x
a
_
cos
_
x
2a
_
dx
=
2V
0

_
+/2
/2
sin m sin 2 cos d where
x
2a
=
4V
0

_
/2
0
sin m sin 2 cos d
We now use the trigonometric identities (from cos Acos B etc.) :
sin m sin 2
1
2
[cos(m2) cos(m + 2)]
cos(m2) cos
1
2
[cos(m1) + cos(m3)]
cos(m + 2) cos
1
2
[cos(m + 3) + cos(m + 1)]
to write
m|

V |1 =
V
0

_
/2
0
[cos(m1) + cos(m3) cos(m + 3) cos(m + 1)] d
=
V
0

_
sin(m1)/2
(m1)
+
sin(m3)/2
(m3)

sin(m + 3)/2
(m + 3)

sin(m + 1)/2
(m + 1)
_
Recall that m is even and 2 so that
sin(m1)/2 = sin(m + 3)/2 = (1)
m
2
+1
sin(m3)/2 = sin(m + 1)/2 = (1)
m
2
Thus
m|

V |1 = (1)
m/2
V
0

1
(m1)
+
1
(m3)
+
1
(m + 3)

1
(m + 1)
_
Putting everything over a common denominator yields
m|

V |1 = (1)
m/2
V
0

16m
(m
2
9)(m
2
1)
Thus
2|

V |1 =
32V
0
15
; 4|

V |1 =
64V
0
105
etc
Now for the unperturbed Hamiltonian
(E
1
E
2
) =

2
h
2
8ma
2
(1 4) =
3
2
h
2
8ma
2
and so we nd that the second order energy shift is an innite sum of the even m
terms, changing the index so that n = 2m ...
E
(2)
1
=

n
_
V
0

n
2(n
2
36)(n
2
4)
_
2
.
8ma
2
(1 4n
2
)
2
h
2
Noting that this ultimately scales as n
9
, we can assume that the sum converges, and
we already saw that the rst order term is about four times the second.
E
(2)
1
=
_
32V
0
15
_
2
8ma
2
3
2
h
2
+ . . .
3. The 1-d anharmonic oscillator: a particle of mass m is described by the Hamiltonian

H =
p
2
2m
+
1
2
m
2
x
2
+ x
4
Assuming that is small, use rst-order perturbation theory to calculate the
ground state energy;

*
show more generally that the energy eigenvalues are approximately
E
n
(n +
1
2
) h + 3
_
h
2m
_
2
(2n
2
+ 2n + 1)
Hint: to evaluate matrix elements of powers of x, write x in terms of the harmonic
oscillator raising and lowering operators a and a

. Recall that the raising and lowering

operators are dened by
a
_
m
2 h
x +
i

2m h
p and a

_
m
2 h
x
i

2m h
p
with the properties that
a|n =

n |n 1 and a

|n =

n + 1 |n + 1
Since the unperturbed energy eigenstates are non-degenerate, we can use the standard
result to calculate the rst order energy level shifts:
E
n
= n|

V |n = n| x
4
|n
The integral associated with the ground state is then

_
m
h
_
x
4
exp (mx
2
/ h) dx
Which is deeply unpleasant. You can look it up:
_

x
2n
exp (ax
2
) dx =
1
2
n+1
_

a
2n+1
2n1

j=1
(2j 1)
so

_
m
h
_
x
4
exp (mx
2
/ h) dx = 3
_
h
2m
_
2
But to do it yourself, its best to use raising and lowering operators.
The unperturbed energy eigenstates satisfy

H
0
|n = E
n
|n with E
n
=
_
n +
1
2
_
h, n = 0, 1, 2, . . .
We can write x in terms of a and a

:
x =

h
2m
_
a + a

_
Thus
E
n
=
_
h
2m
_
2
n|
_
a + a

_
4
|n
Expanding the bracket
_
a + a

_
4
looks pretty awful until you realise that, from the
raising and lowering properties and the orthonormality of the energy eigenstates, only
terms which contain an equal number of raising and lowering operators will give a
non-zero contribution to the diagonal matrix element n|

V |n. Thus
E
n
=
_
h
2m
_
2
n|
_
a
2
a
2
+ a a

a a

+ a a

a + a

a a a

+ a

a a

a + a
2
a
2
_
|n
For the ground state, n = 0, this simplies even further because a|0 = 0, so the third,
fth and sixth terms all give zero. Evaluating the remaining three terms,
a
2
a
2
|0 = a
2
a

|1 =

2 a
2
|2 =

2 a|1 = 2|0
a a

a a

|0 = a a

a|1 = a a

|0 = a|1 = |0
a

a a a

|0 = a

a a|1 = a

a|0 = 0
Thus
E
0
= 3
_
h
2m
_
2
0|0 = 3
_
h
2m
_
2
For the general case, we have to work a little harder;
a
2
a
2
|n =

n + 1 a
2
a

|n + 1 =
_
(n + 1)(n + 2) a
2
|n + 2
=

n + 1 (n + 2) a|n + 1 = (n + 1)(n + 2)|n

a a

a a

|n =

n + 1 a a

a|n + 1 = (n + 1) a a

|n = (n + 1)

n + 1 a|n + 1
= (n + 1)
2
|n
a

a a a

|n =

n + 1 a

a a|n + 1 = (n + 1) a

a|n = (n + 1)

n a

|n
= n(n + 1)|n
but we also need to consider the previously neglected terms:
a a

a|n =

n a a

|n 1 = n a a

|n = n

n + 1 a|n + 1
= n(n + 1)|n
a

a a

a|n =

n a

a a

|n 1 = n a

a|n = n

n a

|n 1
= n
2
|n
a
2
a
2
|n =

n a
2
a|n 1 =
_
n(n 1) a
2
|n 2 = (n 1)

n a

|n 1
= n(n 1)|n
Collecting up terms:
(n + 1)(n + 2) + (n + 1)
2
+ 2n(n + 1) + n
2
+ n(n 1) = 6n
2
+ 6n + 3
so that the shift in energy to rst order is
E
n
= 3
_
h
2m
_
2
_
2n
2
+ 2n + 1
_
n|n = 3
_
h
2m
_
2
_
2n
2
+ 2n + 1
_
As a check, putting n = 0 reproduces the ground-state shift we obtained above.
4. A 1-dimensional harmonic oscillator of mass m carries an electric charge, q. A weak,
uniform, static electric eld of magnitude E is applied in the x-direction. Show that,
to rst order in perturbation theory, the oscillator energy levels are unchanged, and
calculate the second-order shift. Can you show that the second-order result is in fact
exact?
Hint: to evaluate matrix elements of x, write x in terms of the harmonic oscillator
raising and lowering operators a and a

and use the results a|n =

n|n 1 and
a

|n =

n + 1|n + 1.
The perturbation is just the potential energy of a particle of charge q in a constant
electric eld of magnitude E:

V = qE x
so that to lowest order, the energy shift of the nth level is
E
n
= qEn| x|n = qE

n
(x) x u
n
(x) dx 0
since the integrand is an odd function of x. So to lowest order, the energy levels are
unchanged.
At second order, the shift is given by
E
(2)
n
=

m=n
|V
mn
|
2
E
(0)
n E
(0)
m
=

m=n
(qE)
2
|m| x|n|
2
h(n m)
Now the matrix element can be written in terms of matrix elements of a and a

using
x =

h
2m
_
a + a

_
Thus
m| x|n =

h
2m
m|
_
a + a

_
|n =

h
2m
_

n
m,n1
+

n + 1
m,n+1
_
which tells us that only the terms with m = n 1 contribute to the sum. Plugging
this result in we nd that
E
(2)
n
=
q
2
E
2
h
h
2m
_
n
1
+
(n + 1)
1
_
=
q
2
E
2
2m
2
To see that this is actually the exact solution, we note that the full Hamiltonian can
be written

H =
h
2
2m
d
2
dx
2
+
1
2
m
2
x
2
qE x
We introduce a new variable
x
qE
m
2
Noting that

2
= x
2

2qE
m
2
x +
q
2
E
2
m
2

4
we see that the Hamiltonian can be rewritten as

H =
h
2
2m
d
2
d
2
+
1
2
m
2

q
2
E
2
2m
2
and thus the energy of the n
th
state of the full Hamiltonian has energy eigenvalues.
E
n
= (n +
1
2
) h
q
2
E
2
2m
2
which just diers from the usual 1-d oscillator Hamiltonian by a constant shift. Note
that each energy level in the perturbed state corresponds to a level in the unperturbed
state, so the quantum number n can still be used to label them.
5. Starting from the relativistic expression for the total energy of a single particle, E =
(m
2
c
4
+p
2
c
2
)
1/2
, and expanding in powers of p
2
, obtain the leading relativistic correction
to the kinetic energy.
For a single relativistic particle
E = (m
2
c
4
+ p
2
c
2
)
1/2
= mc
2
_
1 +
p
2
m
2
c
2
_
1/2
= mc
2
_
1 +
p
2
2m
2
c
2
+
1
2!
_
1
2
__
1
2
_
p
4
m
4
c
4
+ . . .
_
= mc
2
+
p
2
2m

p
4
8m
3
c
2
+
Recalling that in special relativity, the kinetic energy is dened to be the dierence
between the total energy and the rest energy, gives the desired result:
T E mc
2
=
p
2
2m

p
4
8m
3
c
2
+ . . .
for a plane wavefunction (x) = Acos(kx), and determine whether (x) is an eigen-
state for a relativistic free particle.
Taking T =
p
4
8m
3
c
2
=
h
4

4
8m
3
c
2
, We need to evaluate:
_
(x)

T(x)dx =
_
A
2
cos(kx)
h
4
8m
3
c
2
d
4
dx
4
cos(kx) dx
=
_
A
2
h
4
k
4
8m
3
c
2
cos
2
(kx) dx
The normalisation is straightforward:
A
2
=
_
cos
2
(kx) dx
Thus for a normalised particle, the integrals cancel and we have:
T =
h
4
k
4
8m
3
c
2
Meanwhile, using the above

TAcos(kx) =
_
h
2
k
2
2m

h
4
k
4
8m
3
c
2
_
Acos(kx)
Hence cos(kx) is still an eigenstate for a free particle, with energy
E
k
=
h
2
k
2
2m

h
4
k
4
8m
3
c
2