The quantum mechanical Schrodinger picture of a q-oscillator

Abstract

A q-deformed version of standard quantum mechanics in the coordinate Schrodinger picture is obtained by replacing the ordinary coordinate derivative by the so-called q-discrete derivative as the representative of the momentum operator. The chosen q-discrete derivative is symmetric with respect to the exchange of q and q-1. Under the usually adopted assumptions a q-deformed Schrodinger equation is derived for a harmonic oscillator. The complete set of eigenfunctions can be explicitly constructed as special q-functions and the corresponding energy eigenvalues are identical to those obtained by Biedenharn in his pioneering work (1989). This q-deformed oscillator exhibits a rich novel structure including dynamical symmetry and in the limit q to 1 it reveals some hitherto unknown features of the harmonic oscillator eigenfunctions.