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Discrete Harmonic Oscillator matrix representation of $x$ for Quantum Simulation

Physics Asked on July 6, 2021

(The paper I’m referring to in this question is "Quantum simulations of one dimensional quantum systems")

I’ve been trying to understand the paper above, specifically on constructing a matrix representation of the position operator, $hat{x}$, in discrete real space (Equation (11)).

In analogy with the CV QHO, we define a discrete
QHO by the Hamiltonian
$$H^{text{d}}=frac{1}{2}((x^{text{d}})^2+(p^{text{d}})^2). tag{10}$$
The Hilbert space dimension is $N$, where $Ngeq 2$ is even
for simplicity. $x^{text{d}}$ is the discrete "position" operator
given by the $Ntimes N$ diagonal matrix
$$x^{text{d}} = sqrt{frac{2pi}{N}}frac{1}{2}
begin{pmatrix}
-N & 0 & dots & 0
0 & -(N+2) & dots & 0
vdots & vdots & ddots & vdots
0 & 0 & dots & (N-2)
end{pmatrix}, tag{11}$$

I’m quite a bit lost on how this matrix is derived. Since we are in the basis of real space, I expect that the matrix should be diagonal (as it is). My guess is that the basis of real space that we are in is really the basis of Hermite Polynomials: the diagonal entries are the entries that would satisfy something along the lines of:

$$ hat{H} H_n(x) = a_{nn}H_n(x)$$

where $a_{nn}$ is the diagonal entry in the $n$th row and column, and $H_n(x)$ is the $n$th Hermite polynomial.

I’m not entirely sure if this is proper thinking, so any insight would be greatly appreciated!

One Answer

I think this is it: It seems like we can treat $X$ as the Fourier transform of $p$ to explain the factors.

Correct answer by Jlee523 on July 6, 2021

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