Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/a1/a/i/solution
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 1 A1 a i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Take with real , and . The operator domain matters: use sufficiently smooth wavefunctions for which the following boundary terms vanish at both infinities. A real multiplication operator givesTwo applications of integration by parts giveThus the potential energy and kinetic energy operators obey the stated Hermitian operator identity on this common domain. For , one application of integration by parts instead givesThe derivative is anti-Hermitian, rather than Hermitian; the minus sign cannot generally be removed. Multiplication by makes the corresponding momentum operator Hermitian. These integrations establish the requested symmetry identities; full self-adjointness of an unbounded operator additionally requires equality of its domain with its adjoint's domain.
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