Angular Momentum Operator - Orbital Angular Momentum Operator

Orbital Angular Momentum Operator

Orbital angular momentum L is mathematically defined as the cross product of a wave function's position operator (r) and momentum operator (p):

This is analogous to the definition of angular momentum in classical physics.

In the special case of a single particle with no electric charge and no spin, the angular momentum operator can be written in the position basis as a single vector equation:

where ∇ is the gradient operator.