A Charged Particle in a Simple Harmonic

Oscillator Potential with an Applied Electric

Field
Nicholas Buhagiar

Warren Gies

September 24, 2015

The Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

Lets consider a particle with charge q in a simple harmonic oscillator potential.

A simple harmonic oscillator has the potential
1
m 2 x2
(1)
2
where V is the potential, m is the mass of the particle, is its angular frequency,
and x is the displacement of the particle.
The allowed energies for this system are
V (x) =

1
En = (n + )h
2
where En is the energy, n is the state, and h is the Dirac constant.
The stationary states of this system have the wave function
1
|ni = (a+ )n |0i
n!

(2)

(3)

where |ni is the wave function, a+ is the raising operator and the |0i is the
ground state wave function.
The raising operator is one of the ladder operators, which allow us to change
our energy. a+ is the raising operator and a is the lowering operator. The
ladder operators can be summarized by the equation
a

1
(ip + mx)
2
hm

where a is the ladder operator, i is the imaginary number

momentum operator, and x is the position operator.
The ground state wave function is

(4)

1, p is the

m 1 mx2
)4 e
(5)
h
2
h
The following is a plot for the three lowest wave functions of this system:
|0i = (

Applying an Electric Field

Lets now apply an electric field to this system

E = Ex

(6)

moving along the direction of motion of the oscillating particle.

The effects of a charged particle in a simple harmonic oscillator potential
with an applied electric field can be observed with a hydrogen atom positioned
in an electric field, thus complimenting the given thought experiment. When
the hydrogen atom is placed in an electric field, there is an observable shift in
its energy, better known as the Quadratic Stark effect. The hydrogen atom is
composed of a proton and an electron, which interact with each other and the
electric field. The potential energy of the electron due to the applied electric
field is the source of the energy perturbation of the system, since the potential energy of the electron/proton attraction is typically far greater than the
potential energy of the electron due to the applied electric field.
Lets find the new energies and wave functions of our particle in the electric
field. This can be done through use of the change of variables:
qE
m 2
Plugging in this value to our Hamiltonian for this system
H=

x x0 +

(7)

m 2 x2
p2
+
qEx
2m
2

(8)

our Hamiltonian becomes:

p2
m 2 x02
q2 E 2
(9)
+

2m
2
2m 2
Plugging this new Hamiltonian into the Schrodinger equation, we have the
following:
H=

H |ni = En |ni
p2
m 2 x02
q2 E 2
) |ni = En |ni
+

2m
2
2m 2
This equation can be rearranged to give us the following:
(

(10)

(11)

p2
m 2 x02
q2 E 2
+
) |ni = (En +
) |ni
(12)
2m
2
2m 2
As we can see, we now have two equations that are equal to each other:
(

q2 E 2
1
= (n + )h
(13)
2
2m
2
Rearranging this equation, we can see that the new energies of the particle
in the electic field are
En +

1
q2 E 2
En = (n + )h
(14)
2
2m 2
Applying this change of variables to our wave function, we can see that our
new wave functions of the particle in the electric field is
1
|ni = (a+ )n |0i
n!

(15)

which is just like our initial wave function but in terms of x as opposed to x.
Plotting the lowest three new wave functions on top of our previous plot
gives us the following

As we can see, all the stationary states are shifted in the positive xdirection
when the electric field is applied. Physically, this corresponds to the theoretical
particles potential energy interacting with the applied electric field.

Perturbation Theory

Lets now use perturbation theory. Well start by finding the first order correction to the energies for all states. We can do so by inputting the parameters of
our system into the following equation:
En1 = hn| H 0 |ni

(16)

En1 = hn| qEx |ni

(17)

h
((a+ ) + (a )) |ni
(18)
2m
Due to the presence of the ladder operators, the wave function in the ket will
be in a different state than the wave function in the bra. Therefore, according
to the Kronecker Delta,
En1

= hn| qE

En1 = 0

(19)

We can also find the first order corrections to the wave functions using the
following equation:
|ni =

X hm| H 0 |ni
|mi
0
En0 Em

(20)

m6=n

Solving this equation for the lowest three states (m = 0, 1, 2) explicitly gives
us the following:
|0i =

h0| H 0 |0i
h1| H 0 |0i
h2| H 0 |0i
|0i + 0
|1i + 0
|2i
0
0
0
E0 E0
E0 E1
E0 E20

(21)

qE
|1i + 0
(22)
2m 3 h
These values are not very close at all to the wave functions we found and
plotted in the previous section..
The expectation value for a particle in the ground state can be found in the
following manner:
|0i = 0 +

hx0 i = h0| x0 |0i

hx0 i = h0| x
r
0

hx i = h0|

qE
|0i
m 2

(23)
(24)

h
qE
(a+ + a )
|0i
2m
m 2

(25)

qE
|0i
m 2

(26)

hx0 i = h0|
6

qE
(27)
m 2
The expectation value for a particle in the unperturbed system can be found
using the following equation:
hx0 i =

hxi = h0| x |0i

r
hxi = h0|

(28)

h
(a+ + a ) |0i
2m

(29)

hxi = 0

(30)

which yields

As we can see, the expectation value for the position of the particle in the
unperturbed system is quite different from that found in the ground state when
the electric field is applied.
Finally, lets find the second order corrections to the energies. We can do so
in the following manner
E02 =

| h0| H 0 |0i |2
| h1| H 0 |0i |2
| h2| H 0 |0i |2
+
+
0
0
0
0
E0 E0
E0 E1
E00 E20

q2 E 2
+0
2m 2
This perfectly matches what we found for the exact calculation.
E02 = 0

(31)

(32)

Conclusion

It is quite clear that perturbations in a quantum systems potential can come

in many forms. By appling an electric field to a charged particle in a simple harmonic oscillator potential, we were able to see how the wave functions
and energies of the system changed with this perturbation, and were able to
accomplish this through implementation of perturbation theory and change of
variables. This situation and analysis was also clearly not just a thought experiment, as evidenced by its real life applicability in the Quadratic Stark effect