On momentum operators

Anton Amann, Ulrich Müller‐Herold

André Nauts, Xavier Chapuisat

Since the conformation of physical systems is often advantageously described with the help of generalized (i.e. curvilinear) coordinates, the following questions are raised and general answers given to them: (i) What are the components of the momentum operators, those of the adjoint momentum operators and those of the hermitian momentum operators? (ii) What is the general form of the hamiltonian operator? (iii) What do the general forms of the momentum and hamiltonian operators become when expressed in terms of quasi-momentum operators (e.g. angular momentum component operators)? (iv) How are the answers to the above questions affected by an arbitrary choice of normalization convention for the total wave-function? A complete set of formulae (whatever the independent choices of coordinates, quasi-momentum operators and normalization) is given and various ‘historical’ formulae are shown to be particular instances of the general formulae proposed.

Mei Xiaochun, Ping Yu

The definition of momentum operator in quantum mechanics has some foundational problems and needs to be improved. For example, the results are different in general by using momentum operator and kinetic operator to calculate microparticle’s kinetic energy. In the curved coordinate systems, momentum operators can not be defined properly. When momentum operator is acted on non-eigen wave functions in coordinate space, the resulting non-eigen values are complex numbers in general. In this case, momentum operator is not the Hermitian operator again. The average values of momentum operator are complex numbers unless they are zero. The same problems exist for angle momentum operator. Universal momentum operator is proposed in this paper. Based on it, all problems above can be solved well. The logical foundation of quantum mechanics becomes more complete and the EPY momentum paradox can be eliminated thoroughly. By considering the fact that there exist a difference between the theoretical value and the real value of momentum, the concepts of auxiliary momentum and auxiliary angle momentum are introduced. The relation between auxiliary angle momentum and spin is deduced and the essence of micro-particle’s spin is revealed. In this way, the fact that spin gyro-magnetic ratio is two times of orbit gyro-magnetic ratio, as well as why the electrons of ground state without obit angle momentum do not fall into atomic nuclear can be explained well. The real reason that the Bell inequality is not supported by experiments is revealed, which has nothing to do with whether or not hidden variables exist, as well as whether or not locality is violated in microcosmic processes.

Gordon Baym

The orbital angular momentum of a particle in quantum mechanics is defined exactly as in classical mechanics. Before developing any properties of the angular momentum operators, students must know the commutation relations they satisfy with themselves, with the momentum operator, and with the position operator. The angular momentum operator is very closely related to rotations of the system. Students should compare the ability of the angular momentum operator to generate infinitesimal rotations, with the corresponding property of the linear momentum p. The chapter provides the theory of the orbital angular momentum sufficiently to study the problem of a particle in a central potential.