Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/ib/paper-4/15d/a/solution

Use and the canonical commutation relation. With ,
Using these two transformation laws on gives
These are the orbital angular momentum commutation relations.
Now
The factor is antisymmetric in and its remaining product is symmetric after the two terms are combined, so the contraction vanishes:
The same commutators show that and are rotational scalars: their commutators with every vanish by contraction of the antisymmetric with a symmetric product. Therefore also commutes with every , and for
we have , hence
In particular are pairwise commuting Hermitian operators. By simultaneous diagonalization, they admit a common eigenbasis, subject to the usual spectral-domain qualifications for unbounded operators. This is the rotational invariance of a central-potential Hamiltonian.

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