- #1
BOAS
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Homework Statement
I'm going back through some homework as revision, and came across this problem. It was marked as correct, but now I'm thinking it's unconvincing...
For a particle in an infinite square well, with ##V = 0 , 0 \leq x \leq L##, prove that the stationary eigenstates are mutually orthogonal.
##\int^{\infty}_{\infty} dx \phi^*_m \phi_n = \delta_{m,n}##
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
The stationary eigenstates are given by ##\phi_n (x) = \sqrt{\frac{2}{L}} \sin \frac{n \pi}{L}x##, and since the complex conjugate of a real function is just itself,
##\int^{\infty}_{\infty} dx \phi^*_m \phi_n = \frac{2}{L} \int^L_0 \sin \frac{m \pi }{L}x \sin \frac{n \pi}{L}x##.
Using the identity that ##\sin u \sin v = \frac{1}{2} [\cos (u-v) - \cos (u+v)]##
##\frac{2}{L} \int^L_0 \sin \frac{m \pi }{L}x \sin \frac{n \pi}{L}x = \frac{1}{L} \int^L_0 dx [\cos (\frac{(m-n)\pi}{L}x) - \cos (\frac{(m+n)\pi}{L}x)]##
Evaluating this I find that
##\int^{\infty}_{\infty} dx \phi^*_m \phi_n = \frac{1}{\pi} [\frac{\sin ((m-n)\pi)}{m - n} - \frac{\sin ((m+n)\pi)}{m+n}]##
Here I just said that this is zero for ##m \neq n##
The arguments of the sine functions are zero, regardless of whether or not ##m = n##, so what's missing here?