Ladder operators for orbital angular momentum
Abstract
Three pairs of abstract operators are presented which serve as ladder operators for the orbital angular momentum quantum numbers l and m. These operators are used to prove the restriction of l to integral values and also to obtain matrix elements for orbital angular momentum state vectors. The calculations are based entirely on an application of the abstract (Dirac) operator method to orbital angular momentum.
- Publication:
-
American Journal of Physics
- Pub Date:
- April 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1119/1.14625
- Bibcode:
- 1986AmJPh..54..372D
- Keywords:
-
- 03.65.Fd;
- Algebraic methods