B Shrødinger equation & electrons jumping between atoms

[johann1301h]

(I have very little training in Quantum mechanics)

Can the Shrødinger equation show the probability distribution of the electron when it jumps from one atom to another, like in a circuit f ex.

Thanks!

 

[BvU]

Hi,

Does a yes or no answer to this really help you ? Mine would be: in principle yes but in practice not. Better to study solid state physics and learn about valence bands and conduction bands is my guess.

What do you have in mind ?

 

[johann1301h]

I guess I'm curious to how an electron actually moves inside a wire, and I know we can't know exactly where it is, but I guessed you could make a simulation on how the probability distribution for one electron changes along the wire/along a grid of atoms... And if the scrødinger equation can tell you the distribution given any surrounding state of the electron (other electrons, and protons), I figured it is actually possible to get a clearer view of how the electron moves...

 

[berkeman]

I guess I'm curious to how an electron actually moves inside a wire

You can use this brief article as a place to start, and follow some of the reference links at the bottom of the article...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_and_conduction_bands

 

[HomogenousCow]

Depends on your definition of the Schroedinger equation. You can certainly analyze this with a tight binding model but the Hamiltonian won’t really resemble your ordinary position space Hamiltonian.