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I have a question regarding an exercise I am doing. It is an electron confined to move on a cylinder and I am asked to:
"Find the expectation value of Ly and Lz" in the unperturbed basis. I am just not sure what is meant by the expectation value in a basis? I know what the expectation value is if you give me some wave function at time t. Then <operator> is just:
<operator> = <ψloperatorlψ>
But what on Earth is an "expectation value in a basis"? It is probably something pretty straightforward like the expectation value for the nth eigenfunction, but I just want to be sure.
"Find the expectation value of Ly and Lz" in the unperturbed basis. I am just not sure what is meant by the expectation value in a basis? I know what the expectation value is if you give me some wave function at time t. Then <operator> is just:
<operator> = <ψloperatorlψ>
But what on Earth is an "expectation value in a basis"? It is probably something pretty straightforward like the expectation value for the nth eigenfunction, but I just want to be sure.