The Harmonic Oscillator in Quantum Mechanics: A Third Way

Abstract

Courses on undergraduate quantum mechanics usually focus on solutions of the Schrödinger equation for several simple one-dimensional examples. When the notion of a Hilbert space is introduced only academic examples are used, such as the matrix representation of Dirac's raising and lowering operators or the angular momentum operators. We introduce some of the same one-dimensional examples as matrix diagonalization problems, with a basis that consists of the infinite set of square well eigenfunctions. Undergraduate students are well equipped to handle such problems in familiar contexts. We pay special attention to the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator. This paper should equip students to obtain the low lying bound states of any one-dimensional short range potential.

7 pages, 5 figures, to be published in American Journal of Physics A lot of cosmetic changes were made to improve readability; 2 figures were omitted