Physical significance of wave function

[Wrichik Basu]

I am a beginner in quantum mechanics. I started out with D. J. Griffiths' book in quantum mechanics.

I'm having a problem in understanding the wave function. What is the physical meaning of the wave function? I searched on the net but didn't get any good explanation. I understand that the square of the wave function represents probability density. I also understood the normalisation of wave function, but what is the wave function by itself? How can I experimentally find a wave function?

 

[BvU]

didn't get any good explanation.

there is none. No physical meaning. Nevertheless very useful (as in the Schroedinger equation)

I understand that the square of the wave function represents probability

In fact it is a probability density.

 

[formodular]

From the normalization condition $\int \mathrm{d}^3 x \psi^*(x) \psi(x) = 1$ you can see the wave function is in some sense the square root or factorization of a probability distribution, it is a means for representing probabilities for measuring quantities related to physical systems.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

From the normalization condition $\int \mathrm{d}^3 x \psi^*(x) \psi(x) = 1$ you can see the wave function is in some sense the square root or factorization of a probability distribution, it is a means for representing probabilities for measuring quantities related to physical systems.

Yes, that I've seen. I was looking forward to whether it was a physical quantity which can be measured.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

In fact it is a probability density.

Thanks for that, I had missed it!