Published October 1986 | Version v1
Journal article

Supersymmetry in quantum mechanics

  • 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803

Description

We give some illustrations and interpretations of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics in simple models. We show that the value of 2 for the g factor of the electron expresses the presence of supersymmetry in the Hamiltonian for an electron in a uniform magnetic field. The problem is considered both in the Schroedinger and Dirac formulations. We also show that the radial Coulomb problem with orbital angular momentum l, nuclear charge Z, and principal quantum number n, is supersymmetrically linked to the similar problem with charge Z(1-1/n) and quantum number n-1. Thereby the dependence of Coulomb energies only on the combination Z/n is seen as a manifestation of the supersymmetry in the radial Coulomb problem. Other examples of supersymmetry we consider are the Morse potential, the three-dimensional isotropic oscillator, the states of the helium atom and those of the hydrogen atom in an extremely strong magnetic field

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Am. J. Phys.
Journal Volume
54
Journal Issue
10
Series
Am. J. Phys.
Journal Page Range
928-936
ISSN
0002-9505
CODEN
AJPIA