Paper 4, Section II, 34C34 C

Applications of Quantum Mechanics
Part II, 2020

(a) For a particle of charge qq moving in an electromagnetic field with vector potential A\boldsymbol{A} and scalar potential ϕ\phi, write down the classical Hamiltonian and the equations of motion.

(b) Consider the vector and scalar potentials

A=B2(y,x,0),ϕ=0\boldsymbol{A}=\frac{B}{2}(-y, x, 0), \quad \phi=0

(i) Solve the equations of motion. Define and compute the cyclotron frequency ωB\omega_{B}.

(ii) Write down the quantum Hamiltonian of the system in terms of the angular momentum operator

Lz=xpyypxL_{z}=x p_{y}-y p_{x}

Show that the states

ψ(x,y)=f(x+iy)e(x2+y2)qB/4\psi(x, y)=f(x+i y) e^{-\left(x^{2}+y^{2}\right) q B / 4 \hbar}

for any function ff, are energy eigenstates and compute their energy. Define Landau levels and discuss this result in relation to them.

(iii) Show that for f(w)=wMf(w)=w^{M}, the wavefunctions in ( \dagger ) are eigenstates of angular momentum and compute the corresponding eigenvalue. These wavefunctions peak in a ring around the origin. Estimate its radius. Using these two facts or otherwise, estimate the degeneracy of Landau levels.