Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/ib/paper-2/9d/solution

Use the position-space momentum operator and set . Direct differentiation gives
To compute the squared orbital angular momentum, write , , , so . Expanding the products, including derivatives of their variable coefficients, gives
For example ; summing the three cyclic expressions proves the identity.
Here and , so . Therefore
This is the angular momentum of a homogeneous harmonic polynomial, with angular quantum numbers . The polynomial is a nonzero angular eigenfunction; by itself it is not a normalizable full-space wavefunction.

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