Using the time evolution operator

[ian2012]

I hope someone can help me out here,

I am confused with a line of text I read - it is an example of a 2D Hilbert space with orthonormal basis e1, e2. The Hamiltonian of the system is the Pauli matrix in the y-direction. Given by the matrix:

\sigma_{y} = (\frac{0, -i}{i, 0})

The eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian are given by:

| \pm >_{y}= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(| e_{1} > \pm i|e_{2}>)

So, applying the time evolution operator to the eigenvectors gives:

U| \pm >_{y}=exp(\frac{-i(t-t_{0}) \sigma_{y}}{\hbar})| \pm >_{y}
U| \pm >_{y}=exp(\frac{\mp i(t-t_{0})}{\hbar})| \pm >_{y}

I don't understand how the last line came about?

 

[bapowell]

The last line follows because the eigenvalues of \sigma_y are +/- 1.

 

[ian2012]

Oh right, of course, so it let's you simplify the expression.