Recent content by eprparadox

I'm watching a lecture and the professor is talking about generic quantum states as |\psi> He's making the point that this state is very generic. It can represent anything. He references some examples like the polarization of a photon and the path of a photon and the spin of an electron...

Hey @drvrm, thanks for the response. My assumption was that I have created a system in which the particle is only in a superposition of the two states, n = 1 and n = 2. Is that a physically impossible scenario?

We have a 1 dimensional infinite well (from x=0 to x=L) and the time dependent solution to the wavefunction is the product of the energy eigenstate multiplied by the complex exponential: \Psi_n(x, t) = \sqrt{\frac{2}{L}} \sin(\frac{n\pi x}{L}) e^{-\frac{iE_n}{\hbar}} Now, I want to create a...

Nevermind, they have to be qubits as well. If we consider our superposition to be a qubit, then we can set ## \alpha = 1 ## and ## \beta = 0 ## and that should be an appropriate qubit state.

In a 2 level quantum system, should I consider the states |0> and |1|> to be qubits by themselves? Or is only the SUPERPOSITION of these two states, \alpha |0> + \beta |1> considered to be a qubit?

Thanks @MichPod. I still have some confusion about these outbound paths that he labled |0> and |1>. Those paths are only really defined if we actually MAKE a measurement correct? That is, if we setup a detector that tries to detect which outbound path the photon is coming from, THEN we will...

I'm watching a lecture on the intro to quantum computing. See the attached image which will be useful as I describe my question. So the professor says that we have this single photon and it's in this state, ## | 0 > ##. He states that when we send this photon through a beam splitter that it...

I'm watching a freshman-level lecture trying to take students through the energy-time uncertainty principle. (They've covered the position-momentum uncertainty principle). In the lecture, the professor starts by saying that we have a particle with some momentum, but that we can't know the...

Hey all! Here is the lecture: I set it to start at 1:25 but it's over the first few minutes that he discusses this. In terms of the translational component to the internal energy, I think he is referring to the individual motions of the particles, as seen in the center of mass and as...

I'm watching a lecture introduction internal energy and in it, the lecturer states the following for some system: E_{internal} = E_{translational} + E_{vibrational} + E_{rotational} + E_{other} where ## E_{other} ## could be chemical energy, magnetic energy, electrostatic energy etc. Then...

Hey @PeroK thanks for the response. If the external forces are zero, then the center of mass can't accelerate. But intuitively, this doesn't make sense because there is an external force due to the gravitational acceleration downward. But then that has me asking what other forces are acting...

Homework Statement [/B] A light rope passes over a light frictionless pulley attached to the ceiling. An object with a large mass is tied to one end and an object with a smaller mass is tied to the other end. Starting from rest the heavier object moves downward and the lighter object moves...

Hey great points, thanks so much. Just to confirm: If I were presented with the wavefunction in the attached image above as well as the one I described and was asked to pick which of the two was a possible wave function for the first energy eigenfunction of the harmonic oscillator, then both...

For the harmonic oscillator, I'm trying to study qualitative plots of the wave function from the one-dimensional time independent schrodinger equation: \frac{d^2 \psi(x)}{dx^2} = [V(x) - E] \psi(x) If you look at the attached image, you'll find a plot of the first energy eigenfunction for...

Homework Statement [/B] A battery has an emf of 9 V and an internal resistance of 2 Ω. If the potential difference across its terminals is greater than 9 V: A. it must be connected across a large external resistance B. it must be connected across a small external resistance C. the current must...