3.II.20D
A quantum mechanical system has two states and , which are normalised energy eigenstates of a Hamiltonian , with
A general time-dependent state may be written
where and are complex numbers obeying .
(a) Write down the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for , and show that if the Hamiltonian is , then
For the general state given in equation (1) above, write down the probability to observe the system, at time , in a state , properly normalised so that .
(b) Now consider starting the system in the state at time , and evolving it with a different Hamiltonian , which acts on the states and as follows:
By solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the Hamiltonian , find and in this case. Hence determine the shortest time such that is an eigenstate of with eigenvalue .
(c) Now consider taking the state from part (b), and evolving it for further length of time , with Hamiltonian , which acts on the states and as follows:
What is the final state of the system? Is this state observationally distinguishable from the original state ?