The expectation value of \bgroup\color{black}$x$\egroup in eigenstate

We can compute the expectation value of \bgroup\color{black}$x$\egroup simply.

\begin{eqnarray*}
\langle u_n\vert x\vert u_n\rangle &=&\sqrt{\hbar\over 2m\omeg...
... u_{n-1}\rangle+\sqrt{n+1}\langle u_n\vert u_{n+1}\rangle)=0 \\
\end{eqnarray*}


We should have seen that coming. Since each term in the \bgroup\color{black}$x$\egroup operator changes the eigenstate, the dot product with the original (orthogonal) state must give zero.



Jim Branson 2013-04-22