- #1
knawd
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Homework Statement
A wave packet is described by the momentum-space wave function A(p)=C when 0<p<p0, and A(p)=0 for all other values of p. Here C is a constant.
i) Normalize this wave function by solving for C in terms of p0.
ii) Calculate the expectation values <p> and <p2>. From these compute the standard deviation in terms of p0.
Homework Equations
For normalization: h(integral from 0 to p0)A*(p)dp=1, h being Planck's constant.
<p>=h(integral from 0 to p0)pA*(p)dp
<p2>=h(integral from 0 to p0)p2A*(p)dp
(I am not entirely sure if this equation for <p2> is correct, it may be <p2>=h(integral from 0 to p0)p2A*(p)A(p)dp)
standard deviation=<p2> - <p>2
The Attempt at a Solution
i) When I normalized the wave function from 0 to p0, I got C=1/sqrt(h*p0).
ii) This is the part I'm struggling with. Typically <p> would be equal to zero when integrated from -infinity to +infinity, but this is from 0 to p0. Doing this I am getting <p>=p0.
For <p2> I am integrating from 0 to p0 and getting <p2>=(1/3)p02.
One of these values (or both) can't be correct because when I try to calculate the standard deviation=<p2> - <p>2 = (1/3)p02 - p02= -(2/3)p02. I'm pretty sure standard deviations can't be negative. So the part of the question I really can't figure out is what I'm doing wrong when I try to find the expectation values.