Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ii / Paper 3 / 32D / Solution

The oscillator operators satisfy $[a,a^{†}]=1$ and $[a,a]=[a^{†},a^{†}]=0$. Substitution into the kinetic and potential energies givesThe number operator $N=a^{†}a$ is nonnegative because $⟨\psi ,N\psi ⟩=\Vert a\psi {\Vert }^2$. The commutators $[N,a]=-a$ and $[N,a^{†}]=a^{†}$ lower and raise an eigenvalue by one. If an eigenvalue were a noninteger $\nu \ge 0$, repeated lowering would produce a nonzero eigenvector with eigenvalue between zero and one, and one further lowering would have negative eigenvalue; its norm is nonzero because $\Vert a\psi {\Vert }^2=\nu \Vert \psi {\Vert }^2$. This contradicts nonnegativity. Thus only nonnegative integers are allowed. The normalized Gaussian solves $a|0⟩=0$, and raising it supplies every level, withFor the three-dimensional unperturbed oscillator the product states are $|n_1,n_2,n_3⟩=|n_1⟩\otimes |n_2⟩\otimes |n_3⟩$, with energy $\hslash \omega (n_1+n_2+n_3+3/2)$.

Write the perturbation as $\lambda W$, where $W=(\hslash \omega /2){\sum }_{i<j}(a_i+a_i^{†})(a_j+a_j^{†})$. Its ground-state expectation is zero. Acting on the ground state, it produces $|110⟩,|101⟩,|011⟩$, each with coefficient $\hslash \omega /2$. They lie $2\hslash \omega$ above the ground state, so second-order perturbation theory givesIn the first excited subspace with basis $|100⟩,|010⟩,|001⟩$, the first-order perturbation matrix is $(\lambda \hslash \omega /2)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 1& 1\\ 1& 0& 1\\ 1& 1& 0\end{array}\right)$. Its symmetric eigenvector has eigenvalue $\lambda \hslash \omega$, while the perpendicular two-dimensional space has eigenvalue $-\lambda \hslash \omega /2$. Thus the lowest excited triplet splits intoAs an independent check, diagonalizing the quadratic potential gives normal frequencies $\omega \sqrt{1+2\lambda }$ and $\omega \sqrt{1-\lambda }$ twice; their small-$\lambda$ expansions reproduce both results.