PROBLEMS OF THE

54th—26th INTERNATIONAL—RUDOLF ORTVAY

PROBLEM SOLVING CONTEST IN PHYSICS
2—12 February 2024

1. The attached photo was taken close to the Piszkéstető Observatory before sunset. Several
mountain peaks can be identified, like Ágasvár, Tepke, Nagy-hegy, Csóványos, Szandavár, Szit-
nya and so on.

Determine the radius of the Earth and the altitude of the camera using the photo as precisely
as possible, and give the uncertainties of your results.
You can make use of the altitude (above sea level) of the visible mountains in the picture,
as well as their distances from Piszkéstető and from each other (you can read these data off
from your favourite online map), since these quantities could be measured, in principle, with
sufficient effort using basic methods (with meter-sticks and barometers, for example), which
are, of course, not part of this exercise.
The original high resolution version of the photo can be downloaded from the website:
https://ortvay.elte.hu/2024/piszkes.jpg
(Gábor Veres and Vázsony Varga)

2. Inside the Earth a circular railway is built. The railway is in a completely general position
inside the Earth, which is considered to be spherical and homogeneous in mass distribution. In
the tunnel, the train moves without friction, under the sole effect of gravity. The effects of the
Earth’s rotation can be neglected.
a) Derive the equation of motion of a point-like train.
b) Consider the special case where the track is located in the plane of one of the Earth’s great
circles. The railway wagon with a given initial velocity starts on the track at the point which
is α) furthest from β) nearest to the center of the Earth.
Calculate the period of motion in both cases as a function of the parameters of the trajectory
and the initial speed.

(József Cserti)

1
3. The two-person swing shown in the photo appeared on a few playgrounds. The parent drives
the device in the left seat as if swinging alone. The small child is sitting in the seat on the right.
Some of the children like this swing because it offers a different experience than the usual ones.

Let us make a simplified point mechanical model of the system, with data close to reality.
Assume that the parent’s driving acts as a periodic torque.
Simulate numerically the motion of the child’s swing.
Is it possible that this movement is chaotic in the realistic swing range of no more than 90
degrees?
(Tamás Tél, grandpa)

4. The all-sky camera of Piszkéstető Observatory (https://www.idokep.hu/webkamera/piszkes-

teto_allsky) takes one picture every 20 seconds, which can be downloaded one by one
(https://ccdsh.konkoly.hu/share/allsky/).
Measure the apparent path of a satellite pass of your choice from this year with this camera, and
fit an appropriate function to the data to determine the satellite’s altitude above the surface
(and its uncertainty) as precisely as possible. Discuss possible systematic errors too.
In case of really accurate measurements, knowing the surface gravitational acceleration, the
Earth’s radius could be determined – what kind of satellite would have to be chosen for this
purpose?
In addition to the data measured from the images, you can use the Earth’s data and celestial
coordinates of stars. You can consider the Earth as spherically symmetric and the orbit as
circular, but discuss the uncertainties originating from these assumptions. Try to reach a
relative statistical uncertainty in the altitude above the surface of less than one percent.
Check (e.g. on Heavens-Above, https://www.heavens-above.com/AllSats.aspx) if the me-
asured object is indeed a satellite and if the eccentricity of its orbit is sufficiently small.
To calibrate the conversion between pixel coordinates and horizontal coordinates, we recom-
mend using the web (https://stellarium-web.org/) or desktop (http://stellarium.org/)
version of Stellarium – make sure to use the correct time, time zone and location.
In addition to presenting your work and figures, please indicate exactly which pass you have
used (e.g. Heavens-Above link, or satellite marked on a screenshot).

(Vázsony Varga and Gábor Veres)

2
5. A homogeneous cord rests on a pair of connected, rigid slopes with adjustable inclination angles,
as shown in the figure. The coefficient of friction between the slopes and the cord is µ.

α β

How should we choose the inclination angles α and β, and how should we deposit the cord to
make the length of its hanging middle section maximal?

(Ákos Gombkötő and Róbert Németh)

6. A thin-walled half-tube of mass m and radius 2r can roll without slipping on a horizontal
surface. A cylinder of mass 2m, radius r, with homogeneous mass density, can roll without
slipping inside the half-tube. At instant t = 0, the half-tube is at rest, while the axis of the
cylinder moves with a small horizontal speed v0 .

Calculate the angular displacement of the half-tube as a function of time.

(Jenő Gelencsér and Péter Gnädig)

7. Alice and Bob are fascinated by the intellectual heritage of Eratosthenes, and decide to repeat
his famous measurement of the circumference of the Earth. In order to do that, they measure
very very precisely the length of the shadow of a vertical stick at the same moment; Alice in
a village named Nak in Hungary, and Bob at the ELTE Lágymányos campus in Budapest, on
a day when the altitude of the Sun at solar noon in Budapest was precisely 45 degrees. They
calculate the altitute of the Sun from the shadow lengths at their location, at the time of the
measurement, then they take the difference of these two angles. They read off the distance
of their two locations from the map, they divide that by the above angular difference, then
multiply it by 360 degrees, thus obtaining the circumference of the Earth. They are surprised
that their result is infinity, i.e. that the Earth is flat!
They are worried about this result, thus repeat their measurement a little later on the same
day. Now their result is 80 thousand kilometers! They suspect that they may have made a
mistake of a factor of 2 in their calculations, but after checking everything they conclude that
the calculation is correct.
Thus after a little while they repeat their measurement again. This third time, they get 40
thousand kilometers as a result!
Question: at what time did they perform each of their three measurements? (The solar noon
in Budapest on that day was at 12:39 pm.)

(Gábor Veres)

3
 8. A rope of length L and mass m lies on a horizontal surface such that its shape is a straight
line. One end of the rope is lifted slowly along the vertical line. What is the work required to
lift the rope until the other end loses contact with the surface? The coefficients of static and
kinetic friction between the rope and the surface are both equal to µ = 0.3.

(Máté Vigh)

9. A circular, very heavy ring is placed horizontally. One of its diameters is made of a thin, rigid
wire of length 10a. A drilled ball of mass 4m is placed in the middle of this wire, and a spring
with a rest length a and stiffness k, strung on the wire, is attached to both sides of the central
ball. We place two balls of mass 3m at the outer end of both springs. These balls are connected
to the outer end point of the diameter by a spring of rest length 4a, but also with stiffness k.
The outer end of these springs is fixed to the end points of the diameter. The balls can move
freely along the wire without friction, but are always connected by the springs. The system is
rotated with an angular velocity Ω around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the ring. The
effect of the motion of the balls on the rotation of the ring can be neglected.
p
Hint: it is advisable to introduce the fundamental frequency ω0 = k/m and the dimensionless
parameter p = 12 Ω2 /ω02 , and to answer the following to questions in those terms.
a) Where are the stationary positions of each ball (i.e., those points at which the balls remain
at rest as seen from the system co-rotating with the wheel)?
b) Calculate the frequencies of the small vibrations around the stationary positions and deter-
mine the displacement patterns of the corresponding normal modes. What is the upper limit
on the amplitudes of these normal modes?
c) Let’s examine the stability of the stationary positions as a function of the parameter p.
d) Does the system feature zero-frequency normal modes and symmetry-breaking stationary
states?
e) Let the value of the parameter p now be p = 23/12. In the time period t < 0, the system
rotates with an angular velocity Ω, and the balls oscillate with the lowest frequency. At time
t = 0, the vibration is just at the zero displacement relative to the stationary positions. At
this moment, the movement of the middle ball is momentarily stopped, and then the ball is
released.
Determine the movement of each ball as a function of time.
Does this initial state at t = 0 ever recover along the diameter? If so, when is the earliest?

(Gyula Dávid)

10. Astronomers on Goomy Coast have observed six consecutive positions of a planet moving in the
central force field of a strange distant star. Unfortunately, the enthusiastic researchers forgot
to record the time of the sightings. Later, the system was obscured by a cosmic cloud, so the
observation could not be continued.
The detected positions of the planet fit exactly on a circle, the center of which, however, did
not coincide with the center of the central force field. The radius b of the apparent circular
trajectory was smaller than the distance c of its center from the center of the force field.
Derive the formula of the central potential V (r). Let’s outline the earlier and later stages of
the orbit of the orbiting planet.
(Work strictly within the framework of classical mechanics, neglect all effects of special relati-
vity.)

(based on a publication by A. Tudde Mynek, Port Goomy Daily Shocking Science)

4
11. Super-precise Galilei performs free-fall experiments, dropping balls from windows on different
floors of the Burj Khalifa tower.
What is the accuracy needed on the falling time of the dropped bodies if the purpose of the
measurement is to determine the radius of Earth? What formula and graph should one use to
evaluate your measurement (for some reason he couldn’t get hold of a computer)?
Assume either that a) there is no atmosphere, b) or the air exerts a drag force proportional to
the speed of the falling body.
The Earth can be regarded as a regular sphere, the effect of its rotation can be neglected.

(Gyula Dávid)

12. Let’s reconsider the famous question regarding the shape of a frictionless incline, aiming to
determine the optimal form for a slope on which a point of mass, launched from a given height
under the influence of vertical forces, reaches the initial height in the shortest time possible.
a) Seek the shape of the incline in the form y = y(x)! First, let us consider an unconventional
potential:
a
V (y) = − 2 .
y
Initiate the particle from the point x0 = 0 at a positive height y0 , with finite initial velocity,
ensuring the total energy of the particle is zero. Utilize the known methods of variational
calculus to find stationary paths (those with zero first variation) where the endpoint y1 =
y(x1 ) = y0 is reached. Compute the total times as well.
Examine the stability of the obtained solutions using the functional’s second variation. Discuss
qualitatively the potential solutions as a function of x1 , with fixed y1 = y0 . Is it possible to
find a trajectory that yields a shorter travel time than the stationary variational solution?
b) Now, start with well-known gravitational potential:

V (y) = mgy.

Look for paths where the particle, starting from (x0 = 0, y0 = 0), reaches the point (x1 , y1 )
as quickly as possible, but this time without fixing the value of y1 . Under these boundary
conditions, what solutions do we find? What are the corresponding total times?
Examine the stability of the solutions as well. What interesting features do we observe?
Hint: Attempt to calculate the change in the total time after adding a small variation εη(x)
chosen by us, both in first and second order of ε.

(Kornél Kapás)

13. Consider a rigid body of irregular shape (e.g. an asteroid) in the inhomogeneous gravitational
field of the neighbouring celestial bodies. Assume that the size of the body is much smaller
than the characteristic length describing the inhomogeneity of the surrounding gravitational
field.
Calculate the torque of the gravitational forces acting on the body.
Can you locate the body in a given point of the space in a sufficient position thus the torque
of the tidal forces vanishes? How many different orientations can you find in the general case?
Study the special degenerate cases as well.

(Gyula Dávid)

5
14. A polarizable molecule of fixed position is bombarded by a homogeneous ion beam of low
particle density and velocity v. The distant electromagnetic interaction between the ion and
molecule can be modeled by a classical, effective potential V (r) = −α/r4 . Should they come
close enough to each other, a chemical reaction occurs. Calculate the total cross section of the
reaction as a function of ion energy.
(Ákos Gombkötő)

15. A stack of sixth phase Sierpiński carpets are hung in Sierpiński’s carpet factory, parallel to
each other. A Sierpiński carpet in phase 0 is just a square carpet. In phase 1, a square area,
the middle 1/9, is cut out of it.

The carpet manufacturing process, up to phase six, can be seen here:

https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fájl:Animated_Sierpinski_carpet.gif.
a) From the carpets hung close to each other, one is pulled out very slowly vertically upwards,
according to the illustration below. Those next to it do not move, but they act on the extracted
carpet with a frictional force which is proportional to the contact surface area. How much work
(mechanical energy) is needed to lift the carpet, if the side length of the carpet is L, its mass
is M , and the frictional force coefficient is λ [N/m2 ]?

b) These carpets are very flexible. How far does the same sixth-phase carpet have to be pulled
off the side of a table (see right panel of figure) so that the hanging part already pulls the rest
with it? The adhesion friction coefficient between the carpet and the table is µ = 0.375.
(Merse Előd Gáspár)

16. Consider a one-dimensional ball-spring system consisting of N balls each of mass m and one
ball of mass M , where M ≫ m. The spring constant is k.
Consider the motion of the mass M
−1
p in the thermodynamic limit (i.e. when N → ∞) on
a timescale for which t ≫ ω = m/k. In this case, the motion of the mass M can be
described by the Langevin equation. Based on this, determine the effective friction coefficient
γ of the mass M . How does the ratio of the relaxation time γ −1 to ω −1 depend on the ratio of
the masses?
Write a simple program that numerically solves the problem for different values of N and
interpret the result.
(Máté Vass)

6
17. A parallel beam of light is incident on a glass cylinder of elliptical cross-section with refractive
index n that makes an angle δ with the major axis of the ellipse.
a) Calculate and plot the caustics of the refracted rays inside the glass block.
b) Find the part of the incident light beam that is involved in the formation of the caustics
inside the glass. Give the boundaries of this part of the beam.
Draw figures and investigate the phenomenon for different values of the refractive index n, the
eccentricity of the ellipse ε and the angle δ.
Hint: use the parametric equation of the ellipse x = a cos t, y = b sin t, calculate the points
of the caustics and find the boundaries of the incident beam in question b) in terms of the
parameter t.

(Gyula Dávid and József Cserti)

18. We measured the power output of a solar panel in Budapest on a perfectly clear day (no clouds)
on the 19th of June (see table below).
Question: What was the fraction of solar energy that is absorbed or reflected by the atmosphere
at solar noon; at 8:00 in the morning; and at 19:00 in the evening?
In order to solve this problem, consider the following simple model: The solar panel was warmer
than the air due to the absorbed solar radiation, and had a temperature of Tp = Ta + K · P ,
where K is a constant, P is the power output of the solar panel and Ta is the temperature of
the air, that was also measured separately and can be approximated by the equation
Ta (t) = 29.1 − 0.16 · (t − 14.6)2 [◦ C]
where t is the local time (measured in hours).
We also know that the efficiency of the solar panel (to convert solar energy to electricity)
decreases with increasing temperature by 0.35 %/◦ C, thus we need to correct for that. The
solar panel is tilted by 4 degrees with respect to the horizontal plane (i.e. almost horizontal),
and oriented at 184 degrees (i.e. almost south, but 4 degrees off to the west).
The position of the Sun on this day, as a function of time, can be found on popular web-based
calculators, which can be used to solve this problem. Consider that the intensity of solar
radiation decreases exponentially with the thickness of the air it crosses. The constant K shall
be chosen (fitted) in a way that this is satisfied.
A hint: consider all quantities as a function of the Sun’s altitude!
The measured power output (in kW) is below, for every 10 minutes, starting at 7:20 in the
morning (we always use standard summer time):

0,81 0,90 0,98 1,07 1,16 1,23 1,32 1,40 1,47 1,55 1,63
1,70 1,76 1,83 1,89 1,94 2,00 2,04 2,10 2,15 2,17 2,23 2,28
2,29 2,31 2,34 2,36 2,35 2,38 2,41 2,40 2,40 2,43 2,39 2,42
2,44 2,41 2,41 2,37 2,34 2,33 2,30 2,28 2,24 2,21 2,17 2,12
2,07 2,02 1,98 1,91 1,87 1,81 1,75 1,68 1,61 1,54 1,46 1,39
1,32 1,24 1,16 1,07 0,99 0,90 0,82 0,73 0,65 0,55 0,47 0,39 0,31

(Gábor Veres)

7
19. Let us consider a cube-shaped dielectric body with cubic crystal symmetry, placed in a constant
E external electric field, which is thermally insulated and has a small electric susceptibility
(χ ≪ 1). The value of the external pressure is p. How does the volume change of the cube
depend on the electric field? How does the initial temperature T of the cube change? What if
the cube is electrically conductive? Compare the result with the isotropic case!

(Máté Vass)

20. A space station hovers in space without acceleration, far away from any gravitational centers.
An expedition ship leaves the station, and makes a round trip. The trajectory of the ship
is an exact circle in the inertial system of the station. The ship first accelerates, and after
reaching the farthest point of the trip, it decelerates, arriving with zero speed at the station.
The magnitude of the acceleration is always g, i.e. the standard gravitational acceleration on
the surface of Earth, as observed by the ship’s crew.
How much time does the round trip take, and how much do the crew members age if the radius
of the trip is 10 kilometers? And if the radius is 10 light-years?
Write down the equations of motion, and solve the problem with an accurate numerical method.

(Zsolt Bihary)

21. In a two-dimensional Minkowski space a spacecraft moves with a constant self-acceleration g

in the direction of the x-axis, where g is the same as the gravitational acceleration measured
on the Earth’s surface. (This means that astronauts constantly feel their weight like on Earth
during the motion.) The Minkowski space is defined by coordinates (t, x).
Let’s re-define these coordinates in the largest possible range of space-time around the spaceship
so that the constant-time surfaces coincide with the ‘now’ surfaces defined in the momentary
inertial system of the astronauts. This time coordinate parameter T should be the same as the
spaceship’s proper time, and the constant spatial coordinate surfaces should connect the points
that are equidistant from the spacecraft in the momentary inertial system of the spacecraft.
Choose the spatial coordinate X in such a way that the square of the line element has a
conformal Minkowski shape.
a) Write down conversion rules between coordinates (t, x) and (T, X), in both directions.
The coordinate system (T, X) can be considered as a space-time with a special Riemann-metric
and can be treated with the methods of general relativity.
b) Derive and solve the scalar wave equation in the coordinate system (T, X).
c) Expand the scalar field in terms of plane waves in both coordinate systems. Give the
relationship between the expansion coefficients valid in the two systems.

(Gyula Dávid)

22. Consider two conducting earthed (hollow) spherical surfaces in space, centered at points given
by the vectors r 1 and r 2 , with radii of R1 and R2 , respectively. Find those points in space
where one can place a point charge such that exactly half of the electric field lines from the
point charge arrive on each sphere in the emerging static electric field.
There is no restriction on the values of the parameters. We even allow either (or both) spheres
to have ‘infinite radii’, i.e., to degenerate into planes.

(Ábel Tóth)

8
23. An initially unmagnetized cylindrical ring of ferromagnetic material has internal and external
radii of a and b, respectively, while its extension along the axis is much larger. The body is
winded uniformly with a current-carrying wire according to the figure on the left, making it
magnetized. We may assume that the local residual magnetization is proportional to the local
magnetic field due to the current.

α
a

After this, a section of the ring, under an angle α as measured from the symmetry axis, is
removed without modifying the local magnetization. The resulting system, shown in the figure
on the right, may be considered as an approximate model of a horseshoe magnet if α ≈ π.
Find an analytical expression for the vector potential associated with the static magnetic field
in this special case.

(Ákos Gombkötő)

24. A thin wire loop of arbitrary shape is rotated around some axis with a stationary angular
velocity ω in a homogeneous magnetic field of flux density B.
a) What is the induced voltage in the loop? Express it as a function of time in the simplest
possible form.
b) Calculate the root mean square voltage as well. How should we adjust the orientation of
the loop, the direction of the angular velocity and the magnetic field to make this minimal or
maximal?

P
ω

B
V

c) Consider the example depicted in the figure: N turns of wire wound up on the surface
of a sphere of radius R between two opposite points P and Q, closed by a straight segment
connecting the poles. The pitch of the coil is uniform with respect to the polar angle of the P Q
axis. Examine the questions of exercise b) in this specific case. Discuss the result for different
values of the number of turns.
(Róbert Németh)

9
25. The atoms of a strange ferromagnetic molecule are arranged in the vertices of a regular N -
gon whose circumradius is R. Each atom possesses an internal angular momentum (spin) of
magnitude S, and of continuously varying direction. Between them, there is a Heisenberg-type
interaction, namely, for spins S n and S m with relative position r nm , the interaction energy is
J0 R2
U (S n , S m ) = −2Jnm (S n · S m ) , where Jnm = > 0,
|r nm |2
that is, the exchange constant is proportional to the inverse square distance.

Jnm

Examine the classical dynamics of the molecule following the steps below:
a) Show that every configuration with aligned spins is an equilibrium state of the system. What
can we tell about the stability of this arrangement?
b) Describe the motion of the system when the initially aligned spins are slightly diverted from
their equilibrium orientations. Determine the dispersion relation corresponding to particular
solutions.
c) Compute the general solution of the linearised equations of motion that can be fitted to any
initial state.
(Róbert Németh)

26. Consider again the N -atom ferromagnetic molecule discussed in Problem 25, now taking a
quantum mechanical approach. The Hamiltonian of the system is

XN X
N  
x x y y z z
Ĥ = − Jnm Ŝn Ŝm + Ŝn Ŝm + Ŝn Ŝm ,
n=1 m=1
n̸=m

where Ŝnx , Ŝny , Ŝnz are components of the spin operator, and Jnm is the exchange constant
proportional to the inverse square distance given before.
a) Show that every state where all spin projections onto a specified axis take a value of S with
probability one is a ground state of the system. What is the corresponding eigenenergy?
b) Imagine that we excite the nth atom, that is, we modify its ground state specific definite
spin projection by a value of ℏ. Then the molecule is left alone until, after some time t, we
measure the same spin projection of the mth atom. What is the probability of finding it in an
excited state? What happens in the specific case of t = π/J0 S?
Hint: It is recommended to solve the classical case first (see Problem 25).

(Róbert Németh)

10
27. We learn in quantum mechanics, that sometimes the spectrum of a Hamiltonian can be found
by purely algebraic methods. The main example for this is the harmonic oscillator: there we
can compute the spectrum using the algebra of the creation/annihilation operators. However,
this is not the only such example in theoretical physics. Let us now consider a different algebra,
and compute the spectrum of the Hamiltonian given below.
Let ĥj , j = 1, . . . , N be Hermitian operators, N ≥ 1, with the properties

ĥ2j = 1, Tr ĥj = 0

and satisfying the commutation relations

ĥj ĥj+1 = −ĥj+1 ĥj

[ĥj , ĥk ] = 0, if |j − k| > 1.

Define the Hamiltonian as

N
X
Ĥ = ĥj .
j=1

Determine the spectrum of this operator. The question for a generic N is highly complex, but
certain cases detailed below can be computed relatively easily, so let us solve those problems.
a) Find representations of the algebra for small N . Which finite matrices can represent the
operators ĥj for N = 1, 2, 3, 4? Hint: one could make use of the Pauli matrices and their
tensor products.
b) After finding the representations, calculate the spectrum of the Hamiltonian H for these
small values of N .
c) Now determine the spectrum for N = 1, 2, 3, 4, independently from specific representations.
We can assume that all operators act on finite dimensional spaces. Prove that the set of the
eigenvalues does not depend on the representation, but the multiplicities of the eigenvalues can
vary.

(Balázs Pozsgay)

28. We would like to conduct the usual EPR experiment with spins. Two particles originating
from the decay of a spin-0 particle fly out, one in the left, and one in the right direction. If we
measure spin ‘up’ along the axis z on the left side, then we get spin ‘down’ on the right side,
and vice versa. The correlation between the right side and left side measurements is 100 %.
However, our experiment is disturbed by the Evil Permutators on both side of the experiment,
and we can only access the experimental data through them.
The Evil Permutators’ activity is the following (and they operate independently): they take
5—20 consecutive experimental results and make a permutation on them in an evil and random
way. They only send us the resulting data only after all the measurements are done. They
decide in a random way how many measurements they permute at a time as well. This way
the left side measurements will not match the right side ones.
Do we still have a chance to find out if the left and right side data was correlated originally?
If yes, how many measurements should we plan for a given accuracy?

(Győző Egri)

11
29. Generalize the two-dimensional massless Dirac equation. The Hamiltonian of a particle with
electric charge Q moving in the (x, y) plane is given by

2
Ĥ = α p̂2 Iˆ + β p̂ · Ŝ ,
where α and β are constant parameters, p̂ = (p̂x , p̂y , p̂z ) is the momentum operator of the
particle, Ŝ = (Ŝx , Ŝy , Ŝz ) is the spin operator of an arbitrary spin S in units of ℏ (integer or
half integer, i.e., S = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2, . . . ), and finally Iˆ is the (2S + 1)-dimensional unit matrix.
Since the motion is on the (x, y) plane the p̂z component is zero.
Write a code to obtain the Landau levels En (B) of the particle in a homogeneous magnetic field
B = (0, 0, B) for a given value of S. What values can the index n take? Find the analytical
expressions for the Landau levels in case of S = 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2.
Hint: see problem 33 of the Rudolf Ortvay problem-solving competition in 2011.

(József Cserti)

30. A quantum particle with a quasi-spin degree of freedom can be described by a wave function
of N components. Thus the Hamiltonian Ĥ is a matrix of size N × N . Its components are
†
denoted by Ĥkl . The Hamiltonian is hermitian, i.e. Ĥkl = Ĥlk .
Due to the coupling between the quasi-spin and the orbital motion of the particle the com-
ponents of the Hamiltonian are functions of the position operator x̂ and momentum operator p̂.
More precisely—as the careful analysis of the experimental data has shown—the components of
the Hamiltonian do not depend separately on the position and momentum operators but they
are functions of a specific combination of them: functions of the vector operator ĉ = x̂ + α p̂,
i.e. Ĥkl (ĉ). Here α is a real constant, the value of which can be determined experimentally.
Problem: Study the system in Heisenberg picture. Give the momentum operator p̂(t) as the
function of the time. Explain the results.
Hints:
—At first step introduce the auxiliary vector operator b̂ = β x̂ + γ p̂ which is linearly indepen-
dent from vector ĉ, where the real coefficients β and γ can be chosen in such a way that the
commutation relation between the operators ĉ and b̂ has the simplest form.
—Then calculate the commutator of the operator b̂ with an arbitrary analytical function f (ĉ)
of the operator ĉ.
—The time developing operator Ĝ(t) can be expressed using the projector deconvolution of
the Hamiltonian Ĥ.
(Gyula Dávid)

31. Samuel L. Braunstein and H. J. Kimble, in their article on quantum teleportation published
under the title ‘Teleportation of Continuous Quantum Variables’, refer to John Stewart Bell’s
fundamental work in quantum information theory and claim that the following function in
phase space named after Einstein, Rosen, and Podolsky
4
WEPR (α1 ; α2 ) = 2 exp −e−2r (x1 − x2 )2 + (p1 + p2 )2 − e2r (x1 + x2 )2 + (p1 − p2 )2 ,
    
π
is a Wigner function, where αj = xj + ipj , i is the imaginary unit, and r ≥ 0.
Show that, contrary to the authors’ claim, the function shown here is not a Wigner function.

(Gábor Homa)

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32. In a distant corner of the universe, on the planet of elastic interactions, scientists have long
known that the time-dependent psycho-social relationships of citizens can be well described by
a Heisenberg equation of motion. The Hamiltonian that determines the dynamics between two
specific individuals A and B is given by

Ĥ = r̂ ⊺ · M · r̂ + K ⊺ · r̂ + C,
where   
2 −1 86 2 1
 −1 3 −48 −46   2 
M=
 86 −48 4588 496  ,
 K=
 3 ,
 C = 5,
2 −46 496 1772 4
and the components of the operator r̂ are coordinate and momentum-like operators with the
following properties:
 
x̂A
 x̂B 
r̂ = 
 p̂A  , [x̂m , x̂n ] = 0, [x̂m , p̂n ] = iδmn , [p̂m , p̂n ] = 0, m, n = A, B.


p̂B

a) In practice local scientists use the following simpler form of the operator Ĥ:

Ĥ = (r̂ − r 0 )⊺ · M · (r̂ − r 0 ) + D.

What are the values of the vector r 0 and the scalar D?

b) As the population of the planet increases, it becomes more and more expensive for the pla-
net’s statistical office to track binary relationships due to the deteriorating economic situation.
They decide to switch to new, cheaper ŝ indicators by a transformation ŝ = f (r̂). However,
the planetary governor decrees, for the public good, that
– Only canonical transformations f are allowed.
– In order to reduce the state costs, the Hamiltonian expressed by the new transformed
indicators must have the form
Ĥ = ŝ⊺ · N · ŝ + D,
where the matrix N must be diagonal.
– The old and new indicators must be explicitly convertible from each other, so the mapping
f must be invertible.
Give a concrete realization for the mapping f . If there are several possible transformations,
how can they be derived from this specific mapping? What are the diagonal elements of N?

(András Csordás and Gábor Homa)

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