Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/3/a/i/solution
Past exam of the quantum theory course of the University of Oxford 2023 3 a i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The angular momentum commutation relations arewhere is the Levi-Civita symbol. The angular momentum eigenstates havewith angular momentum quantum number and magnetic quantum number . There are such states in one irreducible spin representation, so the eigenspace has dimension within that multiplet. The use of avoids confusing the magnetic quantum number with the particle mass in the earlier questions.
For completeness, the ladder operators satisfy andThe upper and lower ends are ; integer steps between them require to be a nonnegative integer. This explains both the spectrum and the multiplet dimension. Pure orbital angular momentum permits only integer , whereas general spin allows half-integers. If a larger Hilbert space contains several copies of the same irreducible spin representation, the full eigenspace includes all those copies: its dimension is times their multiplicity, and can be infinite. The paper's dimension question is understood per irreducible multiplet.
New to topics? Read the docs here!