Suppose we have a particle of mass m confined to the surface of a sphere of radius R. The classical Lagrangian of the system is
L=12mR2˙θ2+12mR2sin2θ˙ϕ2
The canonical momenta are Pθ=∂L∂˙θ=mR2˙θ
and Pϕ=∂L∂˙ϕ=mR2sin2θ˙ϕ
The Hamiltonian is
H=P2θ2mR2+P2ϕ2mR2sin2θ
Now start to quantize the system. We replace Pθ and Pϕ as −iℏ∂∂θ and −iℏ∂∂ϕ, respectiely, to obtain
H=−ℏ2∂22mR2∂θ2−ℏ2∂22mR2sin2θ∂ϕ2
This is apparently wrong, it should be the total angular momentum!
So what is the right procedure to quantize a system, especially a system in curvilinear coordinates?
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