Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-of-the-physics-prelims-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/s03/3/b/solution

Replacing by the angular momentum operator gives the Hamiltonian operator
The time-dependent Schrödinger equation is therefore
For a stationary state, separate variables as . Dividing by the product separates a function of from one of :
Thus up to a constant, and the time-independent Schrödinger equation is .
Diagonalize the commuting angular momentum operator at the same time: has solutions . A single-valued wavefunction requires , hence with . Normalizing with the angular probability measure gives
These form an orthonormal basis under . The periodic boundary conditions apply to both the wavefunction and its first derivative, ensuring the physical self-adjoint Hamiltonian operator. For probability per arc length , the normalization instead reads ; the two conventions describe the same probabilities. General states are superpositions of these energy eigenstates.

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