Physics Asked on July 11, 2021
Assume we have the following potential :
$$ Vleft(xright)=begin{cases}
0 & -frac{L}{2}leq xleqfrac{L}{2}
infty & else
end{cases} $$
The wave function for a particle in this well potential, is given by :
$ psi_{even}=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}cosleft(frac{npi x}{L}right),thinspacethinspacepsi_{odd}=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{npi x}{L}right) $
Where $n$ is even for the sin function, and $n $ is odd for the cos function, as we can see the calculation here
(the last comment)
But I tried to find the odd and even wavefunctions by shifting the wavefunction of a particle in an infinite box (which is not symmetric), and got different result. I’ll be glad if someone can explain the difference. Here’s my calculation:
We know that for a particle in a potential $$ Vleft(xright)=begin{cases}
0 & 0leq xleq L
infty & else
end{cases} $$
The wave function is given by
$ psileft(xright)=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}xright) $
For a symmetric potential we’ll shift the function to the left by $ xto x+frac{L}{2} $ (we can see that for $x=-L/2 $ and for $x=L$ the wave function is $0$ so it preserved).
Now $ psileft(xright)=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}left(x+frac{L}{2}right)right)=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}x+frac{pi n}{2}right) $
If we’ll write for odd $n$ , $ n=2m+1 $ and for even $n$, $n=2m$, we’ll get the solution:
$ psileft(xright)=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}left(x+frac{L}{2}right)right)=sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}x+frac{pi n}{2}right)=begin{cases}
psi_{n=2m}=left(-1right)^{m}sqrt{frac{2}{L}}sinleft(frac{pi n}{L}xright)
psi_{n=2m+1}=left(-1right)^{m}sqrt{frac{2}{L}}cosleft(frac{pi n}{L}xright)
end{cases} $
Which is different from the previous result (by a factor of $-1 $ in some of the functions)
What went wrong?
Thanks in advance.
Nothing went wrong, the difference between both results is just a global constant phase, which has no meaning. If $psi_n(x)$ is an eigenfunction of the Hamiltonian, so is $e^{i alpha}psi_n(x)$. In your case, $e^{ialpha}=(-1)^m$.
Correct answer by AFG on July 11, 2021
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