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Operators can be thought of as matrices. Since matrices have two indices and involve summing:

$A^i_j \psi^j\equiv A^i_0\psi^0 + A^i_1\psi^1 + A^i_2\psi^2 \dots$

and a summation between 2 vectors turns into an integral in the continuum:

$\psi_i \psi^i \to \int dx \psi^*(x) \psi(x)$

The usual definition of the position operator:

$$\hat{x}\psi(x) = x\psi(x)$$

involves neither summing, nor has two indices.

I discovered this definition $\hat{x}\equiv \delta(x'-x)x$

such that:

$$\hat{x}\psi(x) = \int dx \delta(x'-x)x\psi(x) = x'\psi(x')$$

which involves summing and has two indices $x, x'$, and it reduces to the original definition. Does this appear anywhere? How would one define momentum operator then? I know it's needlessly complicated, but it helps me grasp some other concepts.

Habouz
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