Complex conjugate of wave function

Amith2006
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A wave function(psi) is a mathematical quantity which gives complete information about the state of a system at a particular instant of time. But what information does the complex conjugate of a wave function(psi*) give? Does it represent the same state as psi? Or does it just have a mathematical significance and no physical significance?
 
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it's the same thing
 
thanx.
 
Amith2006 said:
thanx.


It's not exactly the "same thing". The c.c. wavefunction describes the time-reversed wavefunction (travelling backward in time).
 
Maaneli said:
It's not exactly the "same thing". The c.c. wavefunction describes the time-reversed wavefunction (travelling backward in time).

Thats great! After u mentioned about time reversal, I had a look at time reversal operator and noticed the same thing. Also, time reversal operator being an anti-unitary operator preserves fundamental commutation relations, isn't it?
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!

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