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THE GEOMETRY OF MATHEMATICAL METHODS

Section 24.6 Normalization of States on a Ring

In Section 24.5, we found the energy and angular momentum eigenstates for a quantum particle on a ring to be
\begin{equation} \Phi_m(\phi)\defeq N\,e^{im\phi}\tag{24.6.1} \end{equation}
where
\begin{equation} m\in\{0,\pm1,\pm2,...\}\tag{24.6.2} \end{equation}
and \(N\) is a normalization constant.
As usual, we choose the normalization \(N\) in (24.5.2) so that, if the particle is in an eigenstate, the probability of finding it somewhere on the ring is unity.
\begin{align} 1 \amp= \int_0^{2\pi} \Phi_m^*(\phi)\, \Phi_m(\phi)\, r_0\, d\phi\tag{24.6.3}\\ \amp = \int_0^{2\pi} N^* e^{-im\phi}\, N e^{im\phi}\, r_0 d\phi\tag{24.6.4}\\ \amp = 2\pi r_0 \vert N\vert^2\tag{24.6.5}\\ \amp\qquad \Rightarrow\quad N=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi r_0}}\tag{24.6.6} \end{align}
where we have chosen the arbitrary phase in \(N\) to be one.