Friday, 18 January 2019

hilbert space - Why does langlepsi1psi2|H1|psi1psi2rangle=langlepsi1|H1|psi1ranglelanglepsi2|psi2rangle?


In the solution of an exercise, the following reasoning is used:


1) ψ1ψ2|H1|ψ1ψ2+ψ1ψ2|H2|ψ1ψ2=ψ1|H1|ψ1ψ2|ψ2+ψ1|ψ1ψ2|H2|ψ2


2) ψ1ψ2|H1|ψ2ψ1+ψ1ψ2|H2|ψ2ψ1=ψ1|H1|ψ2ψ2|ψ1+ψ1|ψ2ψ2|H2|ψ1


H1 and H2 refer to the Hamiltonian operator.


May I ask you what property - and if possible the name of this property so that I can look it up on the internet - they used to go from the left hand side to the right hand side for both line 1) and 2)?


I was unable to find anything on the internet (maybe I used the wrong terms ?), even on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra%E2%80%93ket_notation#Properties




Answer



What you've written from your text/exercise is an abuse of notation, but it is standard.


The composite state |ψα is the tensor product of the states |ψH1 and |αH2, which is sometimes written |ψα|ψ|α. A very typical example of such a state is a spatial wavefunction attached to a spin-1/2 state, in which case H1=L2(R) and H2=C2.


The space that such composite states belong to is the tensor product of the Hilbert spaces H1 and H2, usually written H1H2. The inner product on such a space can be inherited from the inner products on H1 and H2. Letting ψ,ϕH1 and α,βH2, we have


ψα|ϕβH1H2=ψ|ϕH1α|βH2


Given two operators A and B which act on H1 and H2, we can define a new operator which acts on H1H2 like this:


(AB)(|ψ|α)=(A|ψ)(B|α)


Putting everything together (and dropping the subscripts on the inner products,


ψα|(AB)|ϕβ=ψ|A|ϕα|B|β





With that out of the way, if you have a composite system made by stitching together the Hilbert spaces H1 and H2, then the Hamiltonian for the composite system is


H=H1I2+I1H2


where H1,2 are the Hamiltonian operators acting on H1 and H2, and I1,2 are the identity operators on H1 and H2. Plugging this in to what I wrote above provides you with the answer you're looking for.




More specifically, note that


ψ1ψ2|H1I|ψ2ψ1=ψ1|H1|ψ2ψ2|I|ψ1=ψ1|H1|ψ2ψ2|ψ1


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...