[Physics] Eigenfunction/eigenvalue of the momentum operator and inner product of $x$ and $p$

fourier transformhilbert-spacemomentumquantum mechanicswavefunction

I am reading a paper on the Wigner function and during a calculation they used $$\langle x|p\rangle = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\hbar}}e^{\frac{ixp}{\hbar}}$$ and referenced Griffiths "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" p. 103.

I looked it up and there they want to find the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the momentum operator.

$$
-i\hbar \frac{d}{dx} f_p(x) = p f_p(x) \\
\Rightarrow f_p(x) = A e^{\frac{ixp}{\hbar}}.
$$

By restricting the eigenvalues to real numbers and setting $A = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\hbar}}$ they get orthonormality

$$
\int_{-\infty}^\infty f^*_{p^{'}}(x) f_p(x) dx = |A|^2 \int_{-\infty}^\infty e^{\frac{i(p-p')x}{\hbar}} dx = |A|^2 2\pi \hbar \delta(p-p') = \delta(p-p').
$$

Therefore

$$f_p(x) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi\hbar}} e^{\frac{ixp}{\hbar}}.$$

How does this connect to the above inner product of $x$ and $p$ and how can I obtain the inner product's solution from this?

Best Answer

This is essentially a notational issue. In Dirac notation, a pure state is represented by a vector (ket) in Hilbert space $|\Psi\rangle$ which contains all the information that one can have about that state. The eigenvectors of momentum are then denoted as $|p\rangle$. This notation is representationally independent - i.e. it does not assume you are in the position representation or the momentum representation. The ket $|p\rangle$ represents the state and says nothing about in which representation it's in. In order to get $|p\rangle$ in the position representation we take the inner product of it with position eigenvector $|x\rangle$. So the position representation of $|p\rangle$ is denoted in Dirac notation by $\langle x |p\rangle$. This position representation of the momentum eigenvector is exactly that Griffiths calculated on page 103.