Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherent_state, or read Glauber's paper "Coherent and Incoherent States of the Radiation Field" Phys. Rev. 131, 2766.

A coherent state is an eigenstate of the (non Hermitian) annihilation operator. They have some interesting properties closely resembling classical states. The wavefunction is usually an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian in some representation, for instance position or momentum.

Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherent_state, or read Glauber's paper "Coherent and Incoherent States of the Radiation Field" Phys. Rev. 131, 2766.

A coherent state is an eigenstate of the (non Hermitian) annihilation operator. They have some interesting properties closely resembling classical states. The wavefunction is usually an eigenstate of the Hamiltonian in some representation, for instance position or momentum.

It is also a "minimal uncertainty" wave function. (The lower bound in the Pauli uncertainty relation is attained.)

I think you are confused. See Sakurai, Quantum Mechanics, chapters 1 and 2.

best,

ümit.

Who is confused about what? On pages 97/98 Sakurai states more or less exactly what John and I were saying. Apart from my reference to the wikipedia page of course.

Dear Dr. Zwan and Dr. Harnad,

I recommend Sakurai to Rahul Walia :) not to you. There is nothing wrong

with your answers.

Perhaps I should add "@" when I am typing in the future.

Have nice day,

best,

ümit.

Coherent states are quite "peculiar" quantum states, for example they do not form an orthonormalized base. I think it is very interesting to read the original papers from Glauber.