Angular momentum and Expectation values

Ben4000
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Homework Statement



Express Lx in terms of the commutator of Ly and Lz and, using this result, show that <Lx>=0 for this particle.

The Attempt at a Solution



[Ly,Lz]=i(hbar)Lx

<Lx>=< l,m l Lx l l,m>

then what?
 
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I can show that <Lx>=0 using the ladder opertators, but i don't think this is what is wanted from this question... how do i use
[Ly,Lz]=i(hbar)Lx to prove <Lx> = 0?
 
\langle L_x\rangle=\langle l,m|L_x|l,m\rangle=\frac{-i}{\hbar}\langle l,m|[L_y,L_z]|l,m\rangle

Expand the commutator using its definition, and take the hermitian conjugate of the resulting equation...what do you see?
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
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