Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/ib/paper-4/15c/b/solution

The Hamiltonian is the sum of three commuting one-dimensional harmonic-oscillator Hamiltonians. Its product eigenstates are
with energies
Equivalently, the level with has energy , as in the three-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator.
Up to normalization, the ground-state wavefunction is
It is radial, so is parallel to the position vector. Since the orbital angular momentum is , every component of annihilates this state. Therefore
and the ground state has .
The first excited level has and is spanned by
The state
satisfies . Applying the ladder operators gives
Hence convenient eigenstates are
up to normalization and irrelevant overall phases.
Finally, the isotropic Hamiltonian is rotationally invariant. The rotational invariance of a central-potential Hamiltonian gives
These commuting self-adjoint operators can be simultaneously diagonalized within each energy eigenspace, which is why joint eigenstates of must exist.

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