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View Full Version : Quantum Mechanics - Commuting Operators (very quick question)


Brewer
Jan5-07, 05:47 AM
Just a quickie:

If two operators commute, what can be said about their eigenfunctions?

The only thing I can glem from the chapter in my textbook about this is that the eigenfunctions are equal? Is this right, or have I misread it?

cristo
Jan5-07, 07:04 AM
If two (Hermitian) operators commute, then there exists a complete set of eigenvectors which is common to both operators.

Sojourner01
Jan5-07, 07:15 AM
Not to interrupt, but if I were asking this question, I'd be doing so exclusively in terms of wave mechanics. It seems to be the 'mdern' way to ignore matrix mechanics when teaching QM - at least it is for my department.