Chapter 9: Q13P (page 363)
Close the “loophole” in Equation 9.78 by showing that ifthen
Short Answer
Showedthat If then
Chapter 9: Q13P (page 363)
Close the “loophole” in Equation 9.78 by showing that ifthen
Showedthat If then
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Get started for freeA particle of mass m is initially in the ground state of the (one-dimensional) infinite square well. At time t = 0 a “brick” is dropped into the well, so that the potential becomes
where After a time T, the brick is removed, and the energy of the particle is measured. Find the probability (in first-order perturbation theory) that the result is now .
A hydrogen atom is placed in a (time-dependent) electric between the ground state (n = 1 ) the (quadruply degenerate) first excited states (n = 2 ) . Also show for all five states. Note: There is only one integral to be done here, if you exploit oddness with respect to z; only one of the n = 2 states is “accessible” from the ground state by a perturbation of this form, and therefore the system functions as a two-state configuration—assuming transitions to higher excited states can be ignored.
In Equation 9.31 assumed that the atom is so small (in comparison to the wavelength of light) that spatial variations in the field can be ignored. The true electric field would be
If the atom is centered at the origin, then over the relevant volume, so and that's why we could afford to drop this term. Suppose we keep the first-order correction:
The first term gives rise to the allowed (electric dipole) transitions we considered in the text; the second leads to so-called forbidden (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole) transitions (higher powers of lead to even more "forbidden" transitions, associated with higher multipole moments).
(a) Obtain the spontaneous emission rate for forbidden transitions (don't bother to average over polarization and propagation directions, though this should really be done to complete the calculation). Answer:role="math" localid="1659008133999"
(b) Show that for a one-dimensional oscillator the forbidden transitions go from level to levelrole="math" localid="1659008239387" and the transition rate (suitably averaged over ) is
(Note: Here is the frequency of the photon, not the oscillator.) Find the ratio of the "forbidden" rate to the "allowed" rate, and comment on the terminology.
(c) Show that the transition in hydrogen is not possible even by a "forbidden" transition. (As it turns out, this is true for all the higher multipoles as well; the dominant decay is in fact by two-photon emission, and the lifetime it is about a tenth of a second
Solve Equation 9.13 for the case of a time-independent perturbation, assumingthatandcheck that
. Comment: Ostensibly, this system oscillates between “” Doesn’t this contradict my general assertion that no transitions occur for time-independent perturbations? No, but the reason is rather subtle: In this are not, and never were, Eigen states of the Hamiltonian—a measurement of the energy never yields. In time-dependent perturbation theory we typically contemplate turning on the perturbation for a while, and then turning it off again, in order to examine the system. At the beginning, and at the end,are Eigen states of the exact Hamiltonian, and only in this context does it make sense to say that the system underwent a transition from one to the other. For the present problem, then, assume that the perturbation was turned on at time t = 0, and off again at time T —this doesn’t affect the calculations, but it allows for a more sensible interpretation of the result.
…(9.13).
Suppose you don’t assume
(a) Findin first-order perturbation theory, for the case
.show that , to first order in .
(b) There is a nicer way to handle this problem. Let
.
Show that
role="math" localid="1658561855290"
where
.
So the equations forare identical in structure to Equation 11.17 (with an extra role="math" localid="1658562498216" )
(c) Use the method in part (b) to obtainrole="math" localid="1658562468835" in first-order
perturbation theory, and compare your answer to (a). Comment on any discrepancies.
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