Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-1/section-b/b7/a/solution

For a particle in a ring, the arc-length coordinate is . The tangential kinetic energy is
The constraint removes radial motion; the constant potential energy along the ring can be chosen as zero. The tangential momentum operator is , or equivalently the angular momentum operator is . Thus
Its physical domain has periodic boundary conditions, and . These make the Hamiltonian self-adjoint and reflect that and describe the same point. No magnetic flux or additional angle-dependent potential energy is present.

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