What Happens to a Charged Particle When Its Oscillator Potential Vanishes?

  • Thread starter Thread starter relativist
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Potential
relativist
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Can anybody please provide a detailed answer to this question ? :

"A charged particle is in the ground state of a one dimensional harmonic oscillator potential generated by electrical means. If the power is suddenly switched off, so that the potential dissappears, then what would happen according to quantum mechanics ?"

I have been reading through Griffiths for a few days now but have not been find an answer to this question. I would be very glad if anybody is able to refer me to a book that explains this situation clearly.

Thanks,

Relativist
 
Physics news on Phys.org
What you are supposed to do here is take the wave function for the ground state of the harmonic oscillator and then see how that wave function would evolve over time under the free particle potential (V = 0).
 
  • Like
Likes phoenix95
Not an expert in QM. AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is quite different from the classical wave equation. The former is an equation for the dynamics of the state of a (quantum?) system, the latter is an equation for the dynamics of a (classical) degree of freedom. As a matter of fact, Schrödinger's equation is first order in time derivatives, while the classical wave equation is second order. But, AFAIK, Schrödinger's equation is a wave equation; only its interpretation makes it non-classical...
I asked a question related to a table levitating but I am going to try to be specific about my question after one of the forum mentors stated I should make my question more specific (although I'm still not sure why one couldn't have asked if a table levitating is possible according to physics). Specifically, I am interested in knowing how much justification we have for an extreme low probability thermal fluctuation that results in a "miraculous" event compared to, say, a dice roll. Does a...
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
Back
Top