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I have a homework problem that asks us to determine $\big[\,f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}\big]$ only by use of $$\big[\hat{x}^n,\hat{p}\big] = ni\hbar \hat{x}^{n-1}$$ as well as assuming $f(\hat{x})$ can be expanded into a Maclaurin series. My solution has me arrive at the correct value of the commutator given by the text, my question is if the individual steps make sense mathematically, in particular line 3.

Solution:

$$f(\hat{x}) = \sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)\,\hat{x}^n}{n!}$$

$$[f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}] = \Bigg[\sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)\,\hat{x}^n}{n!}\, ,\hat{p}\Bigg]$$

$$[f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}] = \sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)}{n!}\big[\hat{x}^n,\hat{p}\big]$$

$$[f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}] = \sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)}{n!}ni\hbar\hat{x}^{n-1}$$

$$[f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}] = i\hbar\sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)}{(n-1)!}\hat{x}^{n-1}$$

Also,

$$\frac{d}{d\hat{x}}f(\hat{x}) = \frac{d}{d\hat{x}}\sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)\,\hat{x}^n}{n!}$$

$$\frac{d}{d\hat{x}}f(\hat{x}) = \sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)n\hat{x}^{n-1}}{n!}$$

$$\frac{d}{d\hat{x}}f(\hat{x}) = \sum \frac{f^{(n)}(0)\,\hat{x}^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}$$

Then,

$$[f(\hat{x}),\hat{p}] = i\hbar\frac{d}{d\hat{x}}f(\hat{x})$$

QED

  • Please note that homework-like questions and check-my-work questions are generally considered off-topic here. We intend our questions to be potentially useful to a broader set of users than just the one asking, and prefer conceptual questions over those just asking for a specific computation. – ACuriousMind Jan 22 '19 at 17:47
  • Sorry about that, I figured I couldn't explicitly ask for a solution but thought that a style in which I ask for validation is ok. I'll keep that in mind. –  Jan 23 '19 at 00:51
  • Possible duplicates: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/87038/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/78222/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Feb 02 '21 at 13:45

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