Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-1/section-b/b7/c/solution

The standard deviations defining the position and momentum uncertainties satisfy and . Part (a) makes both means zero. Using the second moments from part (b),
Multiplication gives
The Heisenberg uncertainty relation requires only . Among the oscillator energy eigenstates, equality occurs solely for the ground state ; the excited states have larger uncertainty products.

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