量子力学英文课件格里菲斯Chapter3.ppt

But its all the same vector — were simply expressing it with respect to two different bases The vector itself lives out there in space, independent of anybodys (arbitrary) choice of coordinates. The same is true for the state of a system in quantum mechanics. It is represented by a vector, |?(t)?, that lives out there in Hilbert space, but we can express it with respect to any number of different bases. The wave function ?(x, t) is actually the coefficient in the expansion of |?? in the basis of position eigenfunctions: where |x? stands for the eigenfunction of x with eigenvalue x . Whereas the momentum space wavefunction ?(p,t) is the expansion of |?? in the basis of momentum eigenfunctions: where |p? stands for the eigenfunction of p with eigenvalue p. Or we could expand |?? in the basis of energy eigenfunctions (supposing for simplicity that the spectrum is discrete): with |n? standing for the nth eigenfunction of H. But its all the same state; the functions ? and ?, and the collection of coefficients {cn}, contain exactly the same information — they are simply three different ways of describing the same vector: Operators (representing observables) are linear transformations — they transform one vector into another: Just as vectors are represented, with respect to a particular basis {|en?}, by their components, operators are represented (with respect to a particular basis) by their matrix elements In this notation Eq.[3.79] takes the form or, taking the inner product with |em?, and hence Thus the matrix elements tell you how the components transform. Later on we will encounter systems that admit only a finite number (N) of linearly independent states. In that case |?? lives in an N-dimensional vector space; it can be represented as a column of (N) components (with respect to a given basis), and operators take the form of ordinary (N?N) matrices. These are the simplest quantum systems — none of the subtleties associated with infinite-dimensional vector s