Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/ib/paper-3/7a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ib Paper 3 7A Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
In the position representation, the orbital angular momentum operator isOn a common smooth domain use , . Expanding the product commutator givesContracting with the two alternating tensors gives the orbital angular momentum commutation relations:For , these imply . Therefore yieldsThusThe nonzero qualification is necessary: a rotationally invariant wavefunction is annihilated by all three components, and the zero vector is not an eigenvector.
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