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In quantum mechanics how the expression of average value of an observable is derived?

Physics Asked by NewStudent on December 12, 2020

In Dirac’s Principles of QM following is stated:

$$
langle x | A + B | x rangle = langle x | A | x rangle + langle x | B |x rangle
$$

but

$$
langle x | AB | x rangle ne langle x | A | x rangle langle x | B | x rangle
$$

and so $langle x|A|x rangle$ is not exact but average value of observable A otherwise in second relation both sides would have to be equal.
I don’t understand the second relation. Shouldn’t both side be equal like this,
$langle x|AB|x rangle = langle x|A(B|x rangle) = b langle x|A|x rangle = ba langle x|x rangle = ba = langle x|A|x rangle langle x|B|x rangle$ , where $a$ and $b$ are corresponding eigenvalues. What is wrong here?

Edit: It is embarrassing. I indeed was thinking $|xrangle$ was eigenvector of both $A$ and $B$ out of sleep deprivation I suppose which I only realised this morning. So anyway I am going to ask moderator to delete this question.

2 Answers

Maybe I could help you with your confusion. If we consider two hermitian operators (just ordinary QM) $A,B$ and regard $$<v|AB|v>$$ you could run into several scenarios.

  1. $|v>$ is eigenstate for operator $A$ (with eigenvalue $a$) and operator $B$ (with eigenvalue $b$). Then your argumentation is correct. $<v|AB|v>=ab<v|v>=<v|A|v><v|B|v>$

  2. If $|v>$ is not eigenstate to one of those operators (or both) then $<v|AB|v>=<v|A|v><v|B|v>$ does no longer hold in general. We could consider one counter expamle: $$A = begin{bmatrix}0 & 11 & 0end{bmatrix}$$ $$B = A$$ $$AB = begin{bmatrix}1 & 0 & 1end{bmatrix}$$ $$|v> = begin{bmatrix}1end{bmatrix}$$ Then : $$<v|AB|v>=begin{bmatrix}1&0end{bmatrix}begin{bmatrix}1 & 0 & 1end{bmatrix}begin{bmatrix}1end{bmatrix}=1$$ But : $$<v|A|v>=begin{bmatrix}1&0end{bmatrix}begin{bmatrix}0 & 11 & 0end{bmatrix}begin{bmatrix}1end{bmatrix}=0$$

In fact, this is very important to realise that the operators are not allways diagonal.

Answered by jan0155 on December 12, 2020

It is generally NOT true that $B|xrangle=b|xrangle$. This is only true if $|xrangle$ is an eigenvector of $B$. However, there is another flaw in your reasoning. Even if $|xrangle$ is an eigenvector of both $A$ and $B$ (as you assumed), it is NOT true that $langle x| xrangle=1$ (I assume $|xrangle$ represents an eigenvector of the position operator $X$). Position eigenvectors are not normalizable in the usual sense. They are normalized to the dirac delta function such that $langle y|xrangle=delta(y-x)$, which means $langle x|x rangle=delta(0)$ in infinite.

Answered by JoshuaTS on December 12, 2020

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