Ladder operators and associated algebra for position-dependent effective mass systems

Abstract

An algebraic treatment of shape-invariant quantum-mechanical position-dependent effective mass systems is discussed. Using shape invariance, a general recipe for construction of ladder operators and associated algebraic structure of the pertaining system, is obtained. These operators are used to find exact solutions of general one-dimensional systems with spatially varying mass. We apply our formalism to specific translationally shape-invariant potentials having position-dependent effective mass.