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For all one dimensional bound states (be it relativistic or non-relativistic), user Gonenc has explained clearly why $\langle p \rangle =0$.

However, I want to know whether $\langle p \rangle=0$ is also true for 3-dimensional bound states. Are there any criteria such as relativistic or non-relativistic, symmetric or asymmetric, etc. under which $\langle p \rangle=0$ holds? Justification for your answer and reference to your answer would be much appreciated.

ACuriousMind
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  • What about the other answer in the question you link? It does not seem to be dimension-specific. – ACuriousMind Jul 31 '21 at 11:27
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    @ACuriousMind I could not understand the mathematical explanation the user provided, especially the last line. Although one of the comments mentioned that for unbounded states, x is ill-defined, I’m still unsure why it is ill-defined for unbounded states. Also, I can't see where the property of relativistic or non-relativistic is used. – Dom Tesilbirth Shira Jul 31 '21 at 11:42
  • Look up the correspondence principal. For any Hamiltonian in any dimension, the expectation values of position and momentum obey Newton's equation. If you have an eigenstates that is bound, the expectation value of position is defined and constant in time, so the expectation of momentum must be zero. This is essentially what the other answer is getting at. – Jahan Claes Jul 31 '21 at 16:04

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In general of course not (not even in $1d$). However, the following observations hold.

If the wavefunction is purely real, then $\langle p_i\rangle=0$ for $i=x,y,z$. This is easy since $p_i\mapsto -i\hbar d/dx_i$ so that (for instance) \begin{align} \langle p_x\rangle = -i\hbar \int dx\,dy\,dz\, \psi^*(x,y,z)\frac{\partial}{\partial x}\psi(x,y,z)\, . \end{align} If the right hand side is non-zero, then it must be necessarily purely imaginary since $\psi\in \mathbb{R}$ and $\partial \psi/\partial x\in \mathbb{R}$. However, the average value of a Hermitian operator is necessarily real; thus the hypothesis that the right hand side is non-zero is false. This holds for any Cartesian component in any dimension.

The argument fails for a number of important states: for instance a coherent state $\vert\alpha\rangle$ where $\alpha$ has an imaginary part. Note that a coherent state is not an eigenstate of the harmonic oscillator hamiltonian.

It is also easy to find linear combinations of harmonic oscillator states or particle-in-a-box states for which $\langle p\rangle\ne 0$. $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}e^{-i E_1t/\hbar}\vert 1\rangle +e^{-iE_2t/\hbar}\frac{i}{\sqrt{2}}\vert 2\rangle$ is such an example. Again such a state is not an eigenstate of $\hat H$ (either for h.o. of particle-in-a-box.)

Broadly speaking, since $\langle p\rangle \propto \frac{d}{dt}\langle x\rangle$, $\langle p\rangle$ will be $0$ whenever $\langle x\rangle$ does not depend on time. This is guaranteed to be so if $\psi$ is a solution to the time-independent Schrodinger equation since in this case $\vert\psi\vert^2$ will not depend on $t$ so that $\langle x\rangle = \int dx x\vert\psi\vert^2$ will also not depend on $t$.

The converse is not true: there are cases where, even if $\langle x\rangle$ is constant (and thus time-independent), $\vert \psi\vert^2$ may depend on $t$. For instance the combination of harmonic oscillator states $a_0\vert 0\rangle e^{-i E_0t/\hbar} + a_2\vert 2\rangle e^{-i E_2t/\hbar}$ with $\vert a_0\vert^2+\vert a_2\vert^2=1$ has $\langle x\rangle =0$ but the probability density $\vert \psi\vert^2$ is still time dependent. Note that for this case $\langle p\rangle=0$, irrespective of $a_0$ and $a_2$.

ZeroTheHero
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