Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/ib/paper-2/9f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ib Paper 2 9F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For and a time-independent operator , differentiate its expectation value and use the Schrödinger equation and its adjoint. Moving across the inner product by integration by parts givesWork with wavefunctions in the displayed operators' domains; the vanishing at infinity removes the associated boundary terms. This is the Ehrenfest theorem derived from time evolution.
The canonical commutation relation follows directly from differentiating : . Thus , while . It follows thatFor the momentum equation, apply both products to a test wavefunction:The kinetic term commutes with , so . ThereforeThese are the classical equations from Ehrenfest theorem for position and momentum expectations; the force expectation need not equal the force evaluated at the expected position.
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