For the harmonic-oscillator number-state second moments, the number operator gives , while the canonical commutation relation gives . Terms with or have zero diagonal matrix elements, since they change the occupation number by two. ThereforeConsequently the potential energy and kinetic energy means areTheir sum is the oscillator energy eigenvalue . Their equality is also the virial theorem result for a quadratic potential, here derived directly from the ladder operators.
Twice applying the creation operator or twice applying the annihilation operator changes the energy eigenvalue by , unless they give zero. The same orthogonality argument as in part (i) therefore givesAlso the factorization in part (a) givesNow and . Squaring in the correct operator order yieldsBy part (i), the means are zero, so these are the variances. Taking positive square roots gives the requested standard deviations:These harmonic-oscillator number-state second moments also show equal mean kinetic energy and potential energy, each . Their uncertainty product is , so the ground state saturates the Heisenberg uncertainty relation.