Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/ib/paper-1/14d/b/solution

Because is the adjoint of ,
Expanding gives the real quadratic
Its discriminant must be nonpositive. Since the expectation of a commutator of Hermitian operators is purely imaginary,
Taking and and then taking square roots gives the stated uncertainty relation. This is the quadratic-norm proof of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation.

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