Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-1/section-b/b7/d/solution
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 Section B B7 d Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Each energy eigenstate picks up its own phase under unitary time evolution. The relative phase therefore changes at . After removing an irrelevant global phase, the state isThe diagonal position matrix elements vanish, but the annihilation operator and creation operator giveThe two off-diagonal cross terms in the expectation value yieldThus the angular frequency is , and the magnitude of the oscillation, meaning its amplitude, isThe peak-to-peak displacement is . The phase fixes where the oscillation starts but does not change . A pure or preparation has no mean oscillation, whereas an equal-weight quantum superposition maximizes its amplitude within this two-state family. The motion is produced by interference between energy eigenstates, rather than by a changing occupation of either one.
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