Phys 115A Discussion 1

Zhiqiang Wang
October 8, 2014
Summary of the major picture and concepts you have learned so far in the QM
class.

Physical pictures in QM

wave-particle duality: in the microscopic world every particle has a wave associated with it, regardless of whether it is a massless particle like a photon, or a
massive particle such as an electron. It is neither a particle nor a wave in the sense
that it does not have a definite trajectory as the classical particle does and when it
is captured by the detector it can behave like a localized particle. So it is both a
particle and a wave. This picture looks so bizarre because we are using the concepts derived from classical mechanics to describe it. Once you get used to it, it
will become natural.
de Brogile wave: Particularly the wavelength of the de Brogile wave of a particle
with a definite momentum p is given by
=

h
p

(1)

where h = 2~ with ~ the Planck constant. The particle and wave nature are
connected by the Planck constant. So Planck constant plays a special role in the
QM world. Whenever this constant can be neglected, the quantum nature can be
neglected. Classical mechanics description is enough. In other words, whenever
the de Brogile wavelength is not important, we can use classical descriptions.
The special thing about the de Brogile wave is that the wave nature shows
up only in a statistical sense. This is the distinct feature that differs from
the classical wave. In the classical world, you shake a string, you see crest
and trough, you see the whole wave just by one glimpse this single string
wave. In contrast, in QM, because the wave nature appears only in a statistical sense, you need to prepare many identical particles, make the same
measurements on these particles and count the probability of the outcomes.
In general the probability will be a distribution. And there will be interference pattern if two waves meet each other, as you see in the electron double
slits experiment.
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The postulates of QM

Just like in classical mechanics, you have Newtons 1st law, 2nd law and 3rd law,
then you apply all these laws to your specific problem, do the calculation and derive
the final results. In QM, similarly you have several postulates. Based on these postulates, you can do all kinds of calculations and make predictions for your specific
problems. There are about five of them. I think the whole purpose of this class is
to introduce you to them and to get yourself familiar with how to use them. Asking
the questions beyond these postulates, you are shaking the foundations of the QM
to some extent. Therefore youd better take them as axioms at the beginning.
So far you have already learned four of them. They are
Wavefunction description: the state of a particle is described by a wavefunction (x, t). Its modulus squared |(x, t)|2 gives the probability density
of finding a particle at position x and time t if you try to measure the position of that particle. This is the statistical interpretation of the wavefunction.
Because the wavefunction describe a wave, we can superimpose two waves
together and get a new wave. That is
(x, t) = 1 (x, t) + 2 (x, t)

(2)

is a new legitimate wavefunction.

Schr
odinger equation: the dynamical evolution of the wavefunction (x, t)
is governed by the Schr
odinger equation
i~

(x, t)
~2 2 (x, t)
=
+ V (x)(x, t)
t
2m x2

(3)

There are several noticeable features of this equation. On the left hand side,
we have a pure imaginary number i. This requires that the wavefunction
(x, t) should be in general complex. We also have the Planck constant ~.
This tells us it describe some quantum wave which has no existence in the
classical world.
Measurements In QM, the statistical nature of the wavefunction is directly reflected in the measurements. When we talk about the measurements,
we should distinguish a single measurement on a single particle from many
measurements on an ensemble of many identical particles.
single particle measurement: say before the measurement, the state of
the particle is described by the wavefunction (x, t). Lets consider the
measurement of the position for the time being. Before the measurement, the particle can be anywhere. After the measurement, our detector captures the particle at some definite position, say x0 . Now the
particle has a definite position. Therefore in the process of measurement, the wavefunction experience a radical change. And this change
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happens almost immediately. Therefore people say the wavefunction

collapses from (x, t) to a new wavefunction, in this case it is a spike
at position x0 . No one fully understand this collapse of wavefunction. So just take it as some established fact from experiments.
Measurements on an ensemble of identical particles: If you measure
the positions of many identical particles, all described by the wavefunction (x, t), you will capture some particles at position x1 , other
particles at position x2 , .... In other words you will find a distribution
of the particles at different positions with the probability |(x, t)|2 dx.
Observables and operators You will learn much more about this on Chapter
3. For the time being just remember that in QM, all observable quantities are
represented by some operators. For example
~
i x
position x
=x

momentum

Total energy

p =

=
H

~2

(4)
(5)
2

2m x2

+ V (x)

(6)

Operator is something very similar to the matrix. It operates on anything to

the right of it. And the order of operators will be very important. In general,
in a state (x, t) is given by
the expectation values of the operator O
Z
>=

<O
dx (x, t)O(x,
t)
(7)

depends on what kind of measurement you

The form of the operators O
= x
= p if you are
perform. O
if you measure the position, while O
measuring the momentum.
> is: you
The physical meaning of the left hand side of Eq. (7) < O
prepare an ensemble of identical particles all described by the wave on these
function (x, t), and you repeat the same measurement of O
particles. You get different outcomes with some probability. The aver >.
age value of these outcomes is defined as < O
The physical meaning of the right hand side of Eq. (7) is that it provides
>, given any operator O.

a general recipe of how to calculate < O

This is almost obvious for O = x

. But for other operators, it is not that
obvious. Now just take it for granted. After you learn more, you will
understand this recipe better.
Once you know how to calculate/define the expectation value of some op >, you can define the standard deviation (which will be called
erator < O
uncertainty later on) and try to understand the Heisenbergs uncertainty
relation. These will be taught furthermore in the following week I think.
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Example Problems

Now we take a simple example problem to illustrate some of the concepts you have
learned. It is Griffth Problem 1.17