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Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all position vectors r in Euclidean space, and has dimensions of length; a position vector defines a point in space. (If the position vector of a point particle varies with time, it will trace out a path, the trajectory of a particle.) Momentum space is the set of all momentum ...
In quantum mechanics, the position operator is the operator that corresponds to the position observable of a particle. When the position operator is considered with a wide enough domain (e.g. the space of tempered distributions ), its eigenvalues are the possible position vectors of the particle.
This operator occurs in relativistic quantum field theory, such as the Dirac equation and other relativistic wave equations, since energy and momentum combine into the 4-momentum vector above, momentum and energy operators correspond to space and time derivatives, and they need to be first order partial derivatives for Lorentz covariance.
between the position operator x and momentum operator p x in the x direction of a point particle in one dimension, where [x, p x] = x p x − p x x is the commutator of x and p x , i is the imaginary unit, and ℏ is the reduced Planck constant h/2π, and is the unit operator. In general, position and momentum are vectors of operators and their ...
Due to linearity, vectors can be defined in any number of dimensions, as each component of the vector acts on the function separately. One mathematical example is the del operator, which is itself a vector (useful in momentum-related quantum operators, in the table below). An operator in n-dimensional space can be written:
It is for this reason that the momentum operator is referred to as the generator of translation. [2] A nice way to double-check that these relations are correct is to do a Taylor expansion of the translation operator acting on a position-space wavefunction.
The Newton–Wigner position operators x 1, x 2, x 3, are the premier notion of position in relativistic quantum mechanics of a single particle. They enjoy the same commutation relations with the 3 space momentum operators and transform under rotations in the same way as the x, y, z in ordinary QM.
The equation itself usually refers to the position space form, where it can be written in terms of separated space and time components ( , ) or by combining them into a four-vector = ( , ) . By Fourier transforming the field into momentum space, the solution is usually written in terms of a superposition of plane waves whose energy and momentum ...