A Weyl Fermion in an infinite well

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The discussion revolves around solving the Dirac equation for a 1D Weyl fermion in an infinite potential well. The user initially struggles with boundary conditions and the continuity of the wave function at the well's edges. They reference an article that suggests the Noether current must be zero at the boundaries, leading to a relationship between the coefficients of the wave function. After further analysis, they realize that different spinors must be used at the boundaries, ultimately concluding that the correct quantization condition yields k_n = (n + 1/2) π/a. The topic is now resolved, and the user requests to lock the discussion.
Paul159
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I try to solve the Weyl equation in a infinite well with infinite mass condition.
Hello everyone,

I have a problem with bounds states of the 1D Weyl equation. I want to solve the Dirac equation

##−i\hbar \partial _x\Psi+m(x)\sigma _z \Psi=E\Psi## with the mass ##m(x)=0,0<x<a##, ##m(x)=\infty,x<0,x>a##. ##\Psi=(\Psi_1,\Psi_2)^T## is a two component spinor. Outside the well, ##\Psi=0##. Inside the well we have the plane wave equation
$$\Psi(x)=A e^{ikx} \begin{pmatrix} 1\\1 \end{pmatrix}+Be^{−ikx} \begin{pmatrix} -i\\i \end{pmatrix}$$. Of course the "wave function" is discontinuous at ##x=0,x=a##. I found this article where they talk about this problem. The condition they choose is that the Noether current is 0 at the well boundary. It is quite simple to find that we get from that ##|A|=|B|##. So we can write## B=Ae^{-i\phi}## where ##\phi## is real. After that I used eq. 33 of the article : at each boundary we must have ##\Psi_2/\Psi_1=ie^{i\alpha}## where ##\alpha=\pi## at ##x=0## and ##\alpha=0## at ##x=a##.

The condition at ##x=0## gives me that ##\cos \phi = \sin \phi -1##, so ##\phi = \pi/2##. The second condition gives me that ##e^{2ika} = -i##, so ##k_n = (n + 3/4) \pi /a##. The problem is that in the article they found ##k_n = (n + 1/2) \pi /a##.

If someone have already done this exercise, can you help me ?


Thanks !
 
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Ok I get it. You have to take two different spinors for ##x = 0## and ##x = a##. The first condition at ##x = 0## will give you the trivial property ##-i = -i##. The condition at ##x = a## will give you ##e^{2ika} = -1##, such that ##k_n = (n + 1/2) \pi /a##.
You can lock this topic thanks.
 
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

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