Paper 3, Section I, B

Quantum Mechanics | Part IB, 2009

The motion of a particle in one dimension is described by the time-independent hermitian Hamiltonian operator HH whose normalized eigenstates ψn(x),n=0,1,2,\psi_{n}(x), n=0,1,2, \ldots, satisfy the Schrödinger equation

Hψn=Enψn,H \psi_{n}=E_{n} \psi_{n},

with E0<E1<E2<<En<E_{0}<E_{1}<E_{2}<\cdots<E_{n}<\cdots. Show that

ψmψndx=δmn\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \psi_{m}^{*} \psi_{n} d x=\delta_{m n}

The particle is in a state represented by the wavefunction Ψ(x,t)\Psi(x, t) which, at time t=0t=0, is given by

Ψ(x,0)=n=0(12)n+1ψn(x).\Psi(x, 0)=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\left(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\right)^{n+1} \psi_{n}(x) .

Write down an expression for Ψ(x,t)\Psi(x, t) and show that it is normalized to unity.

Derive an expression for the expectation value of the energy for this state and show that it is independent of time.

Calculate the probability that the particle has energy EmE_{m} for a given integer m0m \geqslant 0, and show that this also is time-independent.

Typos? Please submit corrections to this page on GitHub.