Rigid translation from a momentum term in the Hamiltonian

ID: rigid-translation-from-a-momentum-term-in-the-hamiltonian

For a free particle on the line or a circle, commutes with the momentum operator . The commuting operator exponentials in the title therefore factorize. Since , the factor translates a wavefunction to , as is verified on each momentum eigenstate. Thus the probability density translates with velocity relative to the evolution. A real constant changes only the global phase. In particular a superposition in one degenerate energy eigenspace translates rigidly under the added term .

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