Heisenberg position-momentum uncertainty relation beyond central potentials

Abstract

Recently it was shown in [New J. Phys. 8, 330 (2006)] that the three dimensional Heisenberg uncertainty principle might be signifficantly sharpened if the relevant quantum state describes the particle in a central potential. I extend that result to the case of states which are not the eigenstates of the square of the angular momentum operator. I derive a new lower bound which involves the mean value and the variance of the $\hat{L}^2$ operator.