A Power series in quantum mechanics

gremory
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
TL;DR Summary
Power series to solving the infinite square well
Just earlier today i was practicing solving some ODEs with the power series method and when i did it to the infinite square well i noticed that my final answer for ##\psi(x)## wouldn't give me the quantised energies. My solution was
$$\psi(x) = \sum^{\infty}_{n=0} k^{2n}(\cos(x) + \sin(x))$$, with ##k = \frac{\sqrt{2mE}}{\hbar}##. I want to know what's the catch when doing this because we need the boundary conditions to quantize the energies and with this solution i don't see how i would get that.
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
\psi(x) = \sum^{\infty}_{n=0} k^{2n}(\cos(x) + \sin(x))=(\cos(x) + \sin(x)) \sum^{\infty}_{n=0} k^{2n}=\psi(x,k)

so something seems wrong. Where are the edges of infinite well ?
 
Last edited:
I am not sure if this belongs in the biology section, but it appears more of a quantum physics question. Mike Wiest, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Wellesley College in the US. In 2024 he published the results of an experiment on anaesthesia which purported to point to a role of quantum processes in consciousness; here is a popular exposition: https://neurosciencenews.com/quantum-process-consciousness-27624/ As my expertise in neuroscience doesn't reach up to an ant's ear...
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
I am reading WHAT IS A QUANTUM FIELD THEORY?" A First Introduction for Mathematicians. The author states (2.4 Finite versus Continuous Models) that the use of continuity causes the infinities in QFT: 'Mathematicians are trained to think of physical space as R3. But our continuous model of physical space as R3 is of course an idealization, both at the scale of the very large and at the scale of the very small. This idealization has proved to be very powerful, but in the case of Quantum...

Similar threads

Replies
21
Views
3K
Replies
4
Views
282
Replies
6
Views
2K
Replies
27
Views
3K
Replies
5
Views
2K
Replies
14
Views
2K
Back
Top