Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 1 34B b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The degenerate subspace has ordered basisUsing the ladder actions,Thus degenerate perturbation theory asks us to diagonalizeIts normalized eigenvectors and first-order energies areThere is no order- admixture from other unperturbed levels.
In fact, preserves , so this two-dimensional eigenspace of is invariant. Directly,Thereforefor every real , with no omitted higher-order terms. This is exact diagonalization within a degenerate subspace, specifically the resonant two-to-one oscillator coupling.