Every orbital angular momentum operator annihilates a radial function: substituting makes the two terms cancel. It also annihilates . Thus the radial factor can be carried through the angular operators. Since is independent of , for every value of .
Direct differentiation gives
Consequently and . For a nonzero admissible radial factor, comparison with forces and . Therefore the simultaneous eigenfunction occurs at
It is the axially symmetric quadratic orbital eigenfunction, with quantum numbers , and angular dependence proportional to the spherical harmonic . The subtraction of removes its rotationally invariant scalar component.