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Ladder Operators for the Harmonic Oscillator

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Problems in Classical and Quantum Mechanics

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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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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