next up previous
Next: Ehrenfest's Theorem Up: Conservation of Probability Previous: Probability Current

Probability current density for coherent states of the SHO

Background: This problem refers back to Problem 3 of the previous problem set. It illustrates the power of physical concepts such as the conservation of probability.

Compute the probability current from your expression for using the result from lecture

where is defined to be the imaginary part of the complex number z.

Verify that your results satisfy

( Background: Note that this verifies that the probability is conserved.)

Hint: The key to this problem is to stay organized and manage your algebra. I suggest arranging things so that you can reuse your result for from last lecture.



Prof. Tomas Alberto Arias
Sat Apr 6 15:26:59 EST 1996