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arXiv:1404.3926

A note on the normalization of the momentum eigenfunctions and Dirac delta function

Mehdi Hage-Hassan

Published Apr 12, 2014• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We determine the generating function of the harmonic oscillator by a new method. Using this generating function we derive the eigenfunctions of the moment p. We find that the normalization of these eigenfunctions is a real and not complex number with phase factor chosen equal one (standard books of quantum mechanics). We prove that the integral of the delta function is equal to one and we derive the oscillator propagator.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1404.3926

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We determine the generating function of the harmonic oscillator by a new method. Using this generating function we derive the eigenfunctions of the moment p. We find that the normalization of these eigenfunctions is a real and not complex number with phase factor chosen equal one (standard books of quantum mechanics). We prove that the integral of the delta function is equal to one and we derive the oscillator propagator.
Through direct simulation with a computer program, we have verified that the published formula for the propagator of the one-dimensional simple harmonic oscillator (1DSHO), when applied in the straightforward manner in which physicists might interpret it, predicts the wrong development of the wave function for half the future times. This note presents a new and simple derivation of the (known) explicit phase factors of the normalization of the 1DSHO propagator that yield the correct development of any initial wave function for all times.
The classical solution is used as a variable for the one-dimensional quantum-mechanical oscillator, and this leads to a separable differential equation solvable in closed form which yields a set of new quantum mechanical solutions, not energy eigenfunctions, that have the property of being localized. These new solutions are shown to be eigenfunctions of a time-independent position operator. The operator algebra of that operator and an analogous momentum operator is given, as well as the relationship of the eigenfunctions to the energy eigenfunction set. The new eigenfunctions, which are not square integrable but possess a δ-function normalization, themselves represent wavepackets that at times corresponding to when the classical position is at an extremum collapse to Dirac δ functions.
We present a full algebraic derivation of the wavefunctions of a simple harmonic oscillator. This derivation illustrates the abstract approach to the simple harmonic oscillator by completing the derivation of the coordinate-space or momentum-space wavefunctions from the energy eigenvectors. It is simple to incorporate into the undergraduate and graduate curricula. We provide a summary of the history of operator-based methods as they are applied to the simple harmonic oscillator. We present the derivation of the energy eigenvectors along the lines of the standard approach that was first presented by Dirac in 1947 (and is modified slightly here in the spirit of the Schrödinger factorization method). We supplement it by employing the appropriate translation operator to determine the coordinate-space and momentum-space wavefunctions algebraically, without any derivatives.
The manner in which probability amplitudes of paths sum up to form wave functions of a harmonic oscillator, as well as other, simple 1-dimensional problems, is described. Using known, closed-form, path-based propagators for each problem, an integral expression is written that describes the wave function. This expression conventionally takes the form of an integral over initial locations of a particle, but it is re-expressed here in terms of a characteristic momentum associated with motion between the endpoints of a path. In this manner, the resulting expression can be analyzed using a generalization of stationary-phase analysis, leading to distributions of paths that exactly describe each eigenstate. These distributions are valid for all travel times, but when evaluated for long times they turn out to be real, non-negative functions of the characteristic momentum. For the harmonic oscillator in particular, a somewhat broad distribution is found, peaked at value of momentum that corresponds to a classical energy which in turn equals the energy eigenvalue for the state being described.