A1.14

Quantum Physics
Part II, 2001

(i) A spinless quantum mechanical particle of mass mm moving in two dimensions is confined to a square box with sides of length LL. Write down the energy eigenfunctions for the particle and the associated energies.

Show that, for large LL, the number of states in the energy range EE+dEE \rightarrow E+d E is ρ(E)dE\rho(E) d E, where

ρ(E)=mL22π2\rho(E)=\frac{m L^{2}}{2 \pi \hbar^{2}}

(ii) If, instead, the particle is an electron with magnetic moment μ\mu moving in an external magnetic field, HH, show that

ρ(E)=mL22π2,μH<E<μH=mL2π2,μH<E\begin{array}{rlr} \rho(E) & =\frac{m L^{2}}{2 \pi \hbar^{2}}, & -\mu H<E<\mu H \\ & =\frac{m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}}, & \mu H<E \end{array}

Let there be NN electrons in the box. Explain briefly how to construct the ground state of the system. Let EFE_{F} be the Fermi energy. Show that when EF>μHE_{F}>\mu H,

N=mL2π2EFN=\frac{m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}} E_{F}

Show also that the magnetic moment, MM, of the system in the ground state is

M=μ2mL2π2HM=\frac{\mu^{2} m L^{2}}{\pi \hbar^{2}} H

and that the ground state energy is

12π2mL2N212MH\frac{1}{2} \frac{\pi \hbar^{2}}{m L^{2}} N^{2}-\frac{1}{2} M H

Part II