PHY 314: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, Varsha 2014

Lecture 8
Anil Shaji
School of Physics, IISER - TVM
(Dated: 28-Aug-2014)
Energy eigenstates. Time evolution of expectation values and stationary states. Quantum
dynamics of a two state system (spin precession)

I.

ENERGY EIGENSTATES

We can find states of the system such that

H|Ej i = Ej |Ej i.
From the notation it should be obvious that the Hamiltonian is the operator corresponding to
the energy of a quantum system. In other words the expectation value of the Hamiltonian for a
quantum state is the energy of that state. The states, |En i are therefore called energy eigenstates.
In the following discussion we assume that the Hamiltonian is independent of time. So the
unitary time evolution operator has the form
0

U (t0 , t) = eiH(t t)/~ .

If we now write an arbitrary state in terms of the energy eigenstates,
X
|i =
cj |Ej i,
j

then it is easy to compute the time evolution of that state,

X
|(t)i =
cj eiEj t/~ |Ej i.
j

In other words, the expansion coefficients, cj change with time as

cj cj eiEj t/~
We are now in a position to compute what happens to the expectation value of an observable
as a result of the time evolution of the state. Let us start with the simplest case in which the state
of the system is an energy eigenstate.
hXi = hEj |X|Ej i hEj |eiHt/~ X eiHt/~ |Ej i
= hEj |eiEj t/~ X eiEj t/~ |Ej i
= hEj |X|Ej iei(Ej Ej )t/~ = hXi

(1)

We find that the expectation values of observables for energy eigenstates do not change in time.
Since these expectation values are the only quantities that can be measured in the lab, these states
are often called stationary states.

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Let us now write down the expression for the time evolution of the expectation value of an
arbitrary observable X for a general state |i.
hXit = h(t)|X|(t)i = h(0)|eiHt/~ X eiHt/~ |(0)i
X
=
h(0)|Ej ihEj |eiHt/~ X eiHt/~ |Ek ihEk |(0)i
j,k

cj ck hEj |eiHt/~ X eiHt/~ |Ek i

j,k

cj ck hEj |eiEj t/~ X eiEk t/~ |Ek i

j,k

cj ck hEj |X|Ek iei(Ej Ek )t/~ .

j,k

P
Note that we have used the completeness of the energy eigenstates ( j |Ej ihEj | = 11) in the second
line of the above equation.
The expectation value contains oscillatory terms with frequencies,
jk =
II.

Ej Ek
.
~

SPIN PRECESSION

Let us now look at a specific example in which we can see the the time dependence of the states
and expectation values. We come back to the familiar quantum, two state, spin system that is
placed in a uniform magnetic field oriented along the z axis. Note that this is not the Stern-Gerlach
set up because the magnetic field is homogeneous. So there is no change in the position of the
atom/spin if it is at rest initially. The interaction between the spin and the magnetic field is given
by
~ B
~ = BSz ,
H = g S
where is constant, = e/me c (e is the charge of the electron, me is its mass and c is the speed
of light) and we have assumed that the strength of the magnetic field along the z-axis is B. To
simplify things a bit more, let us define
B =

eB
= ,
me c

H = Sz

Suppose that the observable that we are interested in is again Sx . Since the Hamiltonian is
proportional to Sz it is convenient to work in the {|0i, |1i} basis. We start by writing down the
time evolution of our basis states, |0i and |1i.
eiHt/~ |0i = e+it/2 |0i
eiHt/~ |1i = eit/2 |1i

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It is useful to remember that
~
|1i
2
~
Sx |1i = |0i.
2
Sx |0i =

So we have
h0|Sx |0i h0|eiHt/~ Sx eiHt/~ |0i = h0|Sz |0i = 0
h1|Sx |1i h1|eiHt/~ Sx eiHt/~ |1i = h1|Sz |1i = 0
Since the Hamiltonian is proportional of Sz , the eigenstates of Sz are also the energy eigenstates.
So, as expected, the expectation value of Sz in the states |0i and |1i are constant in time.
Let us look at a more exciting example. How does the expectation value of the z component of
the spin vary with time for a general state, |(0)i = c0 |0i + c1 |1i? The time evolution of this state
can be written down as
|(t)i = eiHt/~ |(0)i = c0 eit/2 |0i + c1 eit/2 |1i
At time zero, we have
h(0)|Sx |(0)i =

~
c1 c0 + c0 c1 = ~ Re(c0 c1 ).
2

At time t,
h(t)|Sz |(t)i = h(0)|eiHt/~ Sz eiHt/~ |(0)i




= c0 eit/2 h0| + c1 eit/2 h1| Sx c0 eit/2 |0i + c1 eit/2 |1i




~ it/2
c0 e
h0| + c1 eit/2 h1| c0 eit/2 |1i + c1 eit/2 |0i
=
2

~ it

it
c c1 e
+ c1 c0 e
=
2 0


~

it
= Re c0 c1 e
.
2
If we assume that c0 = c1 =

1 ,
2

then we have
h(0)|Sx |(0)i =

~
2

and
h(t)|Sx |(t)i hSx it =

~  it  ~
Re e
= cos(t).
2
2

So we find that the expectation value of Sx is an oscillating function of time. In a similar

manner, we find that
hSy it =

~
sin(t).
2

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and
hSz it = 0
If we, for a moment, imagine that the atom carrying the quantum spin is a classical object
with angular momentum components hSx it , hSy it and hSz it , we find that it is as if the angular
~ is on the equatorial plane and that it is rotating about the z axis with an
momentum vector S
angular velocity given by . Because of this analogy, the time evolution of the two state system
that we discussed here is often referred to as spin precession.