Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/ib/paper-4/6a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 4 6A Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a normalized state and a self-adjoint operator with finite second moment, the quantum uncertainty is defined by . Since is real,In an energy eigenstate of the quantum harmonic oscillator,Discarding the nonnegative squared means proves the stated lower bound. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is , following from . Applying the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality to the two variance contributions givesHere is the oscillator frequency. The bound is the ground-state energy; equality requires zero means and the appropriate minimum-uncertainty width.
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