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    1970), 2nd ed, p. 404 ‘The partition function sum overall configurations ofr(r) can be cast in the language ofan integral overall paths taken by a quantum particle, For the ater approach to quantum mechani, se, R. P. Feynman and A. Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1965) 7B. D, Sullivan and M. M. Telo da Gama, in Fluid Interfacial Phenome- ‘na, edited by C. A. Croxton (Wiley, New York, 1986). Supersymmetry, shape invariance, and exactly solvable potentials Ranabir Dutt,” Avinash Khare,” and Uday P. Sukhatme Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60680 (Received 10 December 1986; accepted for publication 6 April 1987) It is well known that the harmonic oscillator potential can be solved by using raising and lowering operators. This operator method can be generalized with the help of supersymmetry and the concept of “shape-invariant” potentials. This generalization allows one to calculate the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of essentially all known exactly solvable potentials ina simple and elegant manner. 1 INTRODUCTION Most textbooks on nonrelativistic quantum mechanics show how the harmonic oscillator potential can be elegant- ly solved by the raising and lowering operator method.' ‘The purpose of this article is to describe a generalization of the operator method? that can be used to handle many more potentials of physical interest. The generalization is based on two main concepts: supersymmetry and shape invariant potentials. For quantum-mechanical purposes, the main implication of supersymmetry is simply stated. Given any potential V_(x), supersymmetry allows one to construct a partner potential V,, (x) with the same energy cigenvalues (except for the ground state). Furthermore, if V_(x) and V., (x) have similar shapes, they are said to be “shape invariant.” This concept was introduced three ‘years ago by Gendenshtein.’ He calculated the energy eigenvalue spectrum and pointed out that essentially all known solvable potentials? (Coulomb, harmonic oscilla- tor, Morse, Eckart, Péschi-Teller, etc.) are shape invar- iant.’ This work has been extended by us to a calculation, of all the bound state wavefunctions from the ground state in a manner analogous to the harmonic oscillator operator method. ‘The whole development is very elegant, appealing, and yet rather simple, so that any student of quantum mechan- ics should be able to understand and appreciate it. Indeed, we strongly feel that the material presented here can be profitably included in future quantum mechanics courses and textbooks. Accordingly, we have kept this article at a pedagogical level and made it as self-contained as possible. In Sec. IT, we give a quick review of the standard operator method for solving the one-dimensional simple harmonic ‘oscillator potential in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Section III contains a summary of the main ideas of super symmetric quantum mechanics. Section IV is the heart of this article. In it, we precisely define the notion of shape invariant potentials, and then show how one can simply obtain the energy eigenvalues [Eq. (36)] and eigenfunc- tions [Eqs. (47) and(48)] by a generalized operator meth- od. A useful table of all known shape-invariant potentials, 163 Am. J. Phys. 6 (2), February 1988 and their eigenstates is given. A discussion of related prob- lems and concluding remarks are contained in Sec. V. Il. OPERATOR METHOD FOR THE HARMONIC OSCILLATOR ‘The one-dimensional harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian is given by a In terms of the raising and lowering operators a* and a defined by *- (no) ae tae) * AY? d | 1 (2mo\ on) ata le) = o the Hamiltonian takes the form H=(a*a+)) fo 3) ‘The following commutation relations are easly derived. laa*|=1, (aH) =aho, [aH] = —a'ho a) ‘The utility of operators « and a* comes from their ability to generate new eigenstates from a given one. In particular, ify, isan eigenfunction of H with eigenvalue E, , then ay, and a*y, are also eigenfunctions with eigenvalues ~ fiw and E, + fio, respectively. Since the operator a in H is positive semidefinte, all eigenvalues E, >ifio. Therefore, the successive lowering of eigenstates by the op- erator @ must eventually stop at the ground-state wave- function vy, by requiring avig(x) = 0. (5) Operating with faa yields Foa" avy(x) = (H — Yio) Pox) = 0, (9) which corresponds to a ground-state energy E, = iio, Also, using the definition of the lowering operator a (Eq. © 1988 American Association of Physics Teachers 163 (2)] makes Eq, (5) a simple differential equation to solve. This gives the normalized ground-state wavefunction Yo(x) = (mer/mrh)''* exp[ — (ma/2h)x?). mM All higher eigenstates are generated by repeated applica- tions of a*. The complete energy spectrum is Ey = (n+ ho, 1 = 01 2p, (8) with corresponding normalized eigenfunctions Yala) = [Ca "Vat oC). } ‘The operator method is clearly fast, and it bypasses the lengthy solution of the Schrodinger differential equation in terms of Hermite polynomials. Of course, if desired, these explicit eigenfunctions can also be obtained from Eqs. (9) and (2)." III, SUPERSYMMETRIC QUANTUM MECHANICS Assume that one has a potential V(x) whose ground- state wavefunction ¥§~ (x) =¥9(x) is known, and whose ground-state energy has been adjusted so that E~ = 0.* ‘Then the Schrédinger equation for the ground state is # d? A #4 ye) b=0, 10 w=(-E E+ oo) 6 (19) and consequently, ap (12) This gives Rd? Me ~ ona ts (13) where r= riy £2 (B) #(wY =r +8(B). as m\Wy The potentials V.. and V_ are called supersymmetric partner potentials. As we shall shortly show, they have the same energy levels (except for E,~? = 0). Also note from Eq, (12) that Ay = 0. In supersymmetric quantum mechanics,‘itiscustomary ‘to use the superpotential V(x) rather than the ground- state eigenfunction yy of H_. Here, W(x) and Yo are relat- edby Wx) = — ia ea) 2 {wood In terms of the superpotential W(x), the operators A and as) volx) =en(- 164 Amd. Phys, Vol. 56,No. 2, February 1988 A* are given by 4 e Zim, ae 6) 14 mx) 2m dx Also, the supersymmetric partner potentials V(x) are given by vi =W +A wien; w=. Vim dx an Note that W(x) is the average of the potentials V(x) and V_(x), whereas ” (x) is proportional to the commu- tator of d and 4 **: MP.) + @ol= [4,4 *] = Q8/2m) W(x) Let vi? and y+? denote the eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonians H_ and H.,, respectively, with eigenvalues E<~ and E(*>. The integer n= 0,1,2,3,..» denotes the number of nodes in the wavefunction. We will now show that the potentials V., and V_ have the same energy spec- trum, except that the ground state energy Ey = Oof V has ‘no corresponding level for V'.. More specifically, if is any eigenfunction of H_ with eigenvalue £‘~?,” then ‘AW. isan eigenfunction of H, with the same eigenvalue. The proofs straightforward. Hy (Ad~) =4A* (AY) = AHA cs) EL”) (Ady). a9) Similarly, if Y* is an eigenfunction of H.. with eigen- value £*), then d *{*? isan eigenfunction of H_ with the same eigenvalue: HAA‘) AYAATHO) ATH SEL ATH). (20) From Eqs. (19) and (20), itis clear that the eigenstates of HL, ate simply related to those of H_: EWM SEL} an WP = [EGP ABS) (1 =0,1,2,3,..). (22) If the eigenfunction yi, of His normalized, then the wavefunction ¥{*? of H., in Eq. (22) is also normalized. Note that the operator 4 not only converts an eigenfunc- tion of H_ into an eigenfunction of H., with the same ener- gy, but it also destroys a node [y= } has (n + 1) nodes, whereas yi? has 7). Similarly, one has Mo = [ESO ATE? (= 0,1,2,34-)-(23) ‘The operator * creates anode and converts an eigenfunc- tion of H, into an eigenfunction of H with the same ener- wy. In Fig. 1(a), we show the energy spectra of two super- symmetric partner potentials V_ and V,,. Theroles played by the operators 4 and 4 * are indicated: They connect states of the same energy for two different (supersymme- trie partner) potentials, For comparison, in Fig. 1(b), we show the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator spectrum. Dat, Khare, and Sukhatme 164 A )—<>—e A . “ = me : Fig 1. (a) The eigenvalue spectra of the supersymmetric partner poten- tials V_(x) and V..(2). The action ofthe operators and 4 *isindicat ed, (b) The equally spaced energy levels ofthe one-dimensional simple ‘harmonic oscillator. The action of the raising and lowering operators a and ais shown. ‘The roles played by the operators a and a* are indicated: They connect states of different energies for the same (har- ‘monic oscillator) potential ‘An explicit example will clarify the ideas presented in this section. Consider a particle of mass m in an infinite square well of width L. 0 (OL). a The eigenstates are well know! p, = eth ae wen (25) 12 | (n+ Dax = (2)? sin @+D (ocxcty, +-(2) DE (Wcxcb) where n = 0,1,2,3y.» is the number of nodes in the wave- function in the interval 0

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