What makes a function well-behaved in physics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sachi
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Function
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
1 reply · 12K views
sachi
Messages
63
Reaction score
1
We are asked to explain what is meant by a "well behaved function" which represents a physical phenomenon. I know that it has to be continuous, and differentiable at all points (therefore we need the gradient to be continuous), but I'm not sure if derivatives of all orders need to be continuous, although this seems intuitively correct.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
"WBF" depends on the problem.
In QM, it generally means that u" is finite (for a smooth potential), but u" and higher derivatives can be discontinuous, and usually are.
If the pot is a delta function, then a "well behaved wave function" can have a discontinous first derivative.