Quantizing orbital angular momentum via the harmonic oscillator

Gordon Leslie Squires

Charles P. Friedman, Edwin F. Taylor

The quantization of orbital angular momentum can be introduced simply through the model of the two- and three-dimensional simple harmonic oscillator. Most of the analysis is carried out in the familiar Cartesian coordinate system in which the simple harmonic oscillator Schrödinger equation is separable. Angular momentum eigenfunctions are constructed by superposition, and the resulting functions easily transformed into spherical coordinates. The angle-dependent parts of the solutions are the spherical harmonics, which are the orbital angular momentum eigenfunctions for all central potentials including the Coulomb potential of the hydrogen atom. The method also introduces the separation of variables technique and provides practice in applying the concepts of completeness, orthogonality, superposition of states, and alternative representations.

Arbab I. Arbab

\n We have formulated a model of a complex (two-dimensional) quantum harmonic oscillator. All dynamical physical variables are expressed in terms of the creation and annihilation operators, viz., $a_{z}, \\bar{a}_{z}\\ {\\rm and} \\ a_{\\bar{z}}, \\bar{a}_{\\bar{z}} $. The Hamiltonian of the system is $H_{z\\bar{z}} = (\\bar{a}_{z}a_{z} + 1) + \\omega L_{z} $, where ω is the oscillator frequency and $L_{z} = \\frac{\\hbar }{2}\\,(\\bar{a}_{\\bar{z}} a_{\\bar{z}}-\\bar{a}_{z}a_{z}) $ is the orbital angular momentum. The oscillator is found to be described by a conserved orbital angular momentum (Lz) besides energy. While the ground-state wave function is real, all excited states are complex and degenerate. The oscillator in these states carry a quantum of charge of $e^{{\\ast}} = \\frac{n}{2n\\pm1} e $. These degenerate wave functions are eigenstates of the orbital angular momentum with eigenvalues nℏ and −nℏ, where h=2πℏ is the Planck's constant and n=1, 2, … . The two wave functions are degenerate with energy En=(n+1)ℏω. The comparison with Landau level reveals that in the presence of the magnetic field, B, where ω is equal to the cyclotron frequency, the current moment is quantized and is proportional to the square root of the magnetic field, i.e., ${\\cal I}_{n}\\propto n e \\sqrt{B} $.\n

Ajit Kumar

S. Olszewski

Electron orbits having a definite angular momentum in a static magnetic field are calculated with the aid of the Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization rules. The quantization gives that orbits are arranged along a straight line but the distance between the centers of two neighboring orbits decreases with increase of the absolute value of the angular momentum. With the energy correction equal to the zero-point energy of the harmonic oscillator, the distribution of orbits becomes identical to that obtained recently with the aid of a mixed semiclassical and quantum mechanical theory. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Rubén Santamaría