Abstract
The ladder operator method of solving the harmonic oscillator problem is not only elegant, but extremely useful. In fact, the general method transcends the harmonic oscillator inasmuch as there are other systems for which ladder operators exist, most notably angular momentum. We devote an entire section to these operators because of their importance for solving problems and for understanding how to use ladder operators (also known as raising and lowering operators).
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References
Arfken GB, Weber HJ (2005) Mathematical methods for physicists, 6th edn. Elsevier, New York
Boas ML (1983) Mathematical methods in the physical sciences. Wiley, New York
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Kelley, J.D., Leventhal, J.J. (2017). Ladder Operators for the Harmonic Oscillator. In: Problems in Classical and Quantum Mechanics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46664-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46664-4_7
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46664-4
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