Monday, November 5, 2018

quantum mechanics - Quantization of a particle on a spherical surface


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 iθ and iϕ, respectiely, to obtain


H=222mR2θ2222mR2sin2θϕ2


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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