Harmonic oscillator tensors. V. The doubly degenerate harmonic oscillator

The step operators of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator are shown to be separable into the basis elements of two disjoint Heisenberg Lie algebras. This separability leads to two sets of irreducible tensors, each of which is based upon its associated underlying Heisenberg Lie algebra. The matrix elements of these tensors are evaluated, along with those of some vibrational operators of physical interest. The possibility of other irreducible tensors are discussed and their usefulness is compared with that of those found here. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.