Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/ib/paper-2/18f/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ib Paper 2 18F a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The orbital angular momentum operators areOn smooth wavefunctions, , while position operators commute with each other and momentum operators commute with each other. Applying the product rule for commutators givesUse it on the four terms in : only and survive, with the latter entering positively from the two minus signs. ThereforeThe cyclic versions similarly give and . Thus, for ,Now define . For each ,because the Levi-Civita symbol is antisymmetric in and the operator pair is symmetric. Linearity then gives . The PDF superscript here is the squared total angular momentum, not the component .
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