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Anharmonic Oscillator Perturbation Theory

The document describes applying perturbation theory to solve for the energy levels and wavefunctions of a one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. The unperturbed Hamiltonian is that of a harmonic oscillator. Perturbation theory is used to solve for corrections to the energy levels and wavefunctions due to additional cubic and quartic terms in the position operator. The energy is solved for up to second order in perturbation theory. Matrix elements of the position, cubic, and quartic terms are calculated using ladder operators. This allows writing the first and second order energy corrections as well as the perturbed wavefunction up to first order.

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Marian Burlacu
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738 views3 pages

Anharmonic Oscillator Perturbation Theory

The document describes applying perturbation theory to solve for the energy levels and wavefunctions of a one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. The unperturbed Hamiltonian is that of a harmonic oscillator. Perturbation theory is used to solve for corrections to the energy levels and wavefunctions due to additional cubic and quartic terms in the position operator. The energy is solved for up to second order in perturbation theory. Matrix elements of the position, cubic, and quartic terms are calculated using ladder operators. This allows writing the first and second order energy corrections as well as the perturbed wavefunction up to first order.

Uploaded by

Marian Burlacu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Application of the independent perturbation theory (the non-degenerate case):

Perturbation theory for one-dimensional anharmonic oscillator


P 2 m 2 Q 2

Q 3 Q 4 , where and are constants.


2m
2
Obtain the energy up to the second order term in perturbation theory and the ket state up
to the first order term.
The Hamiltonian: H

Summary of the unperturbed problem (the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator):


P 2 m 2Q 2
;
H0

H 0 | n En0 | n .
2m
2
The state n

1 x

1
2n n ! 1/ 4

x ( )
H n ( )e 2 x0 (with x0
and H n ( z ) the Hermite
m
x0
x0
2

1
polynomials) has the associated energy E n0 (n ) ; n 0,1, 2,... .
2
m
1
x
(Q i
P) .
The creation operator: a
Q
(a a ) 0 (a a )
2
m
2m
2
m
1
m
i
Pi
(a a )
(a a )
(Q i
P) .
The annihilation operator: a
2
2
m
2 x0

The action of the annihilation and creation operators (the ladder operators) on the state n is
given by a n n n 1 and a n (n 1) n 1 .
The perturbed problem: H H 0 V , with V Q3 Q4 .
Up to second order of perturbation the energy is En En(0) En(1) En( 2) +..
where: En( 0) En0 , En(1) n (Q 3 Q 4 ) n , E n( 2)

m (Q 3 Q 4 ) n

m n

E n0 E m0

Up to first order, the perturbed state is:

n n

m (Q 3 Q 4 ) n

m n

E n0 E m0

m .

In order to determine the above matrix elements, one firstly needs to calculate the action of the
different powers of the coordinate operator Q on the state n , i.e.

Q | n

x0
2

(a a ) | n ...

Q 2 | n Q(Q | n )

x0
2

(a a )(Q | n ) ...

Q3 | n Q(Q 2 | n )
Q 4 | n Q(Q3 | n )

x0
2
x0
2

(a a )(Q 2 | n ) ...
(a a )(Q3 | n ) ...
3

Note that Q3 | n ( x0 )3 ( ) 2 and Q4 | n ( x0 )4 ( )2 .


The energy:
Since m | n mn , for the first order correction of the energy En(1) n (Q 3 Q 4 ) n , just
the n Q4 n gives a non-zero contribution. It will result that En(1) n Q4 n
For the second order contribution,
(2)
n

m ( Q3 Q 4 ) n

( )2 .

En0 Em0

m n

m Q3 n

m Q3 n n Q 4 m m Q 4 n n Q3 m m Q 4 n

( n m)

m n
5

( ) 2 2( ) 2 ( )3 ,

we retain only terms proportional to ( ) 2 . The second order correction should be of the same
order of magnitude with the first order correction.

(2)
n

m n

m Q3 n

(n m)

O( 3 )

Observe that the only nonzero matrix elements for the third order term are:
n 3 Q 3 n ...
n 1 Q 3 n ...
n 1 Q n ...
3

n 3 Q 3 n ....

En(2)

m n 3, n 1,
n 1, n 3

m Q3 n

(n m)

O( 3 ) ... En En(0) En(1) En(2) ... .

The state:
As above, based on the fact that m | n mn , one has to choose just scalar products with

m n identical to the states that appear explicitly in the expression of Q3 | n and Q4 | n .


Therefore, we also need
n 4 Q 4 n ...
m ( Q3 Q 4 ) n
n n
m
( n m)
m n
n 2 Q 4 n ...
and finally,
.
m Q3 n
m Q4 n
n 2 Q 4 n ...
n
m
m ...
( n m)
( n m)
4
m n 3, n 1,
m n 4, n 2,
n 4 Q n ....
n 1, n 3
n 2, n 4

Different resuls:
3
3
1
3
(
) 2 n(n 1)(n 2);
n 1 Q3 n
(
) 2 n3 ;
8 m
8 m
3
3
1
3
n 3 Q3 n
(
) 2 (n 1)(n 2)(n 3); n 1 Q3 n
(
) 2 (n 1) n 1.
8 m
8 m
We need the diagonal matrix element of:
3
n Q4 n (
)2 (2n2 2n 1)
4 m
The second order contribution of the quartic term to energy for the moment can be neglected.
Then, for the energy, we obtain:

n 3 Q3 n

1
3
1 15 2
11
2
En (n )
(
n

)
(
)3 (n 2 n ).

2
2 m
2
4 m
30
2

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