dakold said:I’m think of a particle, with momentum p, that travels in a region there the potential is zero and comes to a place there it exist an infinite potential barrier and travels through the region and comes to a region there the potential is again zero. How can the particle after the barrier have the same momentum p?
dakold said:Of course that can't be an infinite barrier. So the same particle as above, but the difference is that the potential is finite. How can the momentum be conserved?
dakold said:I understand that I have confused you. My thought was that I must have misunderstands something because of the explanations that stated above. The case that I did think of was an infinite potential barrier with a width, but if the wavefunction is zero at the boundary than the momentum can’t be conserved, or I’m a wrong? So if the momentum shall be conserved it most be a finite barrier, or?
If a particle, with momentum p, is traveling in a region with the potential is equal to zero, at some place the potential is not zero, if my thought above is correct than shall the potential be finite. After that the potential is again zero, is the momentum conserved?
An infinite potential barrier is a hypothetical concept in physics where a particle is confined to a specific region by an infinitely high potential energy barrier. This means that the particle cannot escape or move beyond the barrier, and its energy is constantly increasing as it approaches the barrier.
An infinite potential barrier affects the behavior of particles by limiting their movement to a specific region. This creates a quantized energy state for the particle, as its energy can only take on certain discrete values. It also leads to phenomena such as particle tunneling, where a particle can overcome the barrier and appear on the other side even though its energy would not allow it to do so in classical mechanics.
No, an infinite potential barrier is a theoretical concept and cannot exist in the real world. In reality, there are always limitations to potential energy barriers, and particles can eventually overcome them with enough energy.
The concept of an infinite potential barrier has applications in various fields of physics, including quantum mechanics, solid state physics, and nuclear physics. It is also used in the development of electronic devices such as quantum well lasers and superlattices.
An infinite potential barrier is related to the uncertainty principle in that it causes a quantization of energy states for particles, leading to uncertainty in their position and momentum. This is because the particle's energy is confined to specific values and cannot have a precise value, as predicted by the uncertainty principle.