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jfy4
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Hi,

I am trying to figure out the following integral. I have two normalized 1D harmonic osccilator wave functions [itex]\psi_{n}(x)[/itex] and [itex]\psi_{m}(x)[/itex] and I would like to integrate
[tex] \int_{\text{all space}} |\psi_{n}(x)|^2 |\psi_{m}(x)|^2 dx[/tex]
for [itex]m\neq n[/itex]. I would also be interested in knowing for what conditions on [itex]m[/itex] and [itex]n[/itex] could this integral be approximated as
[tex] \int_{\text{all space}} |\psi_{n}(x)|^2 |\psi_{m}(x)|^2 dx \approx \left( \int |\psi_{n}(x)|^2 dx \right) \left( \int |\psi_{m}(x)|^2 dx \right) =1[/tex]
I have tried integrating by parts and waded through a couple of identities but I haven't been able to make much progress. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
 
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jfy4,
I do not know how to calculate your integral, but the approximation you have indicated cannot work for any n,m because the right-hand side of the equality has different dimensions.
 
Jano L. said:
jfy4,
I do not know how to calculate your integral, but the approximation you have indicated cannot work for any n,m because the right-hand side of the equality has different dimensions.
Good point, thanks.
 
tom.stoer said:
jfy4, I don't see any physical relevance of the integrals you are interested in

now, neither do I...