Quantum mechanics of a particle in an infinite square well under the influence of a time-dependent electric field is reconsidered. In some gauge, the Hamiltonian depends linearly on the momentum operator which is symmetric but not self-adjoint when defined on a finite interval. In spite of this symmetric part, the Hamiltonian operator is shown to be self-adjoint. This follows from a theorem by Kato and Rellich which guarantees the stability of a self-adjoint operator under certain symmetric perturbations. The result, which has been assumed tacitly by other authors, is important in order to establish the equivalence of different Hamiltonian operators related to each other by quantum gauge transformations. Implications for the quantization procedure of a particle in a box are pointed out.
We give a lower bound for the energy of a quantum particle in the infinite square well. We show that the bound is exact and identify the well-known element that fulfils the equality. Our approach is not directly dependent on the Schroedinger equation and illustrates an example where the wavefunction is obtained directly by energy minimization. The derivation presented can serve as an example of a variational method in an undergraduate level university course in quantum mechanics.
Employing a transformation to hyperbolic space, we derive in a simple way exact solutions for the Klein-Gordon equation in an infinite square-well potential with one boundary moving at constant velocity, for the massless as well as for the massive case.
One-dimensional potentials defined by $V^{(S)}(x) =S(S+1) \hbar^2 π^2 /[2ma^2\sin^2(πx/a)]$ (for integer $S$) arise in the repeated supersymmetrization of the infinite square well, here defined over the region $(0,a)$. We review the derivation of this hierarchy of potentials and then use the methods of supersymmetric quantum mechanics, as well as more familiar textbook techniques, to derive compact closed-form expressions for the normalized solutions, $ψ_n^{(S)}(x)$, for all $V^{(S)}(x)$ in terms of well-known special functions in a pedagogically accessible manner. We also note how the solutio…
We introduce a numerical method to obtain approximate eigenvalues for some problems of Sturm-Liouville type. As an application, we consider an infinite square well in one dimension in which the mass is a function of the position. Two situations are studied, one in which the mass is a differentiable function of the position depending on a parameter $b$. In the second one the mass is constant except for a discontinuity at some point. When the parameter $b$ goes to infinity, the function of the mass converges to the situation described in the second case. One shows that the energy levels vary ver…
Using mainly two techniques, a point transformation and a time dependent supersymmetry, we construct in sequence several quantum infinite potential wells with a moving barrier. We depart from the well known system of a one-dimensional particle in a box. With a point transformation, an infinite square-well potential with a moving barrier is generated. Using time dependent supersymmetry, the latter leads to a trigonometric Pöschl-Teller potential with a moving barrier. Finally, a confluent time dependent supersymmetry transformation is implemented to generate new infinite potential wells, all of…
We show that it needs a more delicate potential to confine particles inside a well. The original model containing a vague notation of infinity in the potential energy is ambiguous. Using the Heaviside step function and the Dirac delta-function, we give a precise form for the confining potential. Although such form appears unusual, the ambiguities are resolved. This form also shows that the infinite square well is not the limit of a finite square well.
Ehrenfest's theorem in the infinite square well is up to now only manifested indirectly. The manifestation of this theorem is first done in the finite square well, and then consider the infinite square well as the limit of the finite well. For a direct manifestation, we need a more precise formula to describe the degree of infiniteness of the divergent potential energy. We show that the potential energy term term, which is the product of the potential energy and the energy eigenfunction, is a well defined function which can be expressed in terms of Dirac delta functions. This means that the in…
We examine the classical problem of an infinite square well by considering Hamilton's equations in one dimension and Hamilton-Jacobi equation for motion in two dimensions. We illustrate, by means of suitable examples, the nature of the periodic motion of a particle trapped inside the well.
This article is an illustration of the construction of coherent and generalized intelligent states which has been recently proposed by us for an arbitrary quantum system $[ 1] $. We treat the quantum system submitted to the infinite square well potential and the nonlinear oscillators. By means of the analytical representation of the coherent states à la Gazeau-Klauder and those à la Klauder-Perelomov, we derive the generalized intelligent states in analytical ways.
We extend the standard treatment of the asymmetric infinite square well to include solutions that have zero curvature over part of the well. This type of solution, both within the specific context of the asymmetric infinite square well and within the broader context of bound states of arbitrary piecewise-constant potential energy functions, is not often discussed as part of quantum mechanics texts at any level. We begin by outlining the general mathematical condition in one-dimensional time-independent quantum mechanics for a bound-state wave function to have zero curvature over an extended re…
In this paper, we study the number of rounds of communication needed to implement certain tasks by local quantum operations and classical communication (LOCC). We find that the class of LOCC operations becomes strictly more powerful as more rounds of classical communication are permitted. Specifically, for every $n$, there always exists an $n$ round protocol that is impossible to implement in $n-2$ rounds. Furthermore, we show that certain entanglement transformations are possible if and only if the protocol uses an infinite (unbounded) number of rounds. Interestingly, the number of rounds req…
For a quantum confinement model, the wave function of a particle is zero outside the confined region. Due to this, the negative energy states are, in fact, square integrable. As negative energy states are not physical, we need to impose some boundary conditions in order to avoid these states. For the case of the infinite square well model, we show the possible boundary conditions that avoid the existence of the negative energy states. The well-known boundary condition requiring the wave function be continuous on both sides of the well is one of the boundary conditions that avoids negative ener…
The original model of the infinite square well contains a vague notation infinity and therefore results some ambiguities. We investigate to obtain a functional form for the potential energy V(x). This is done by substituting back the original energy eigenstates and eigenvalues into the Schrodinger equation. We then obtain a precise functional form of the V(x). From this reformed model, we show that energy eigenstates and eigenvalues can directly be obtained without the need of imposing boundary condition, Ehrenfest's theorem can directly be confirmed, and ambiguities in the original model can …
We analytically compute the time evolution of an initial infinite plane wave in the presence of a 1-dimensional square quantum barrier. This calculation generalizes the analysis of the shutter problem and sets the basis for the calculation of the transmission of general wave packets, aiming to work out the explicit contribution of the resonant (Gamow) states. The method relies mainly on the analytical properties of the Green function. The role of separate boundary conditions on the Green function and on the evolution equation is highlighted. As in previous works on related problems, only the d…
Generalized quantum singular value transformation with application in quantum conjugate gradient least squares algorithm
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Wuhan University（武汉大学数学与统计学院）；Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University（西安交通大学理学院应用物理系）；Hubei Key Laboratory of Computational Science, Wuhan University（武汉大学计算科学湖北省重点实验室）
In this article we propose a method to estimate with high accuracy pure quantum states of a single qudit. Our method is based on the minimization of the squared error between the complex probability amplitudes of the unknown state and its estimate. We show by means of numerical experiments that the estimation accuracy of the present method, which is given by the expectation of the squared error on the sample space of estimates, is state independent. Furthermore, the estimation accuracy delivered by our method is close to twice the Gill-Massar lower bound, which represents the best achievable a…
The first two period behaviors of a quantum wave packet in an infinite square well potential is studied. First, the short term behavior of expectation value of a quantity on an equally weighted wave packet (EWWP) is in classical limit proved to reproduce the Fej'{e}r average of the Fourier series decomposition of the corresponding classical quantity. Second, in order to best mimic the classical behavior, a nice relation between number $N$ of stationary states in the EWWP with the average quantum number $n$ as $N\thickapprox \sqrt{n}$ is revealed. Third, since the Fejér average can only approxi…
Quantum computation and quantum control operate by building unitary transformations out of sequences of elementary quantum logic operations or applications of control fields. This paper puts upper bounds on the minimum time required to implement a desired unitary transformation on a d-dimensional Hilbert space when applying sequences of Hamiltonian transformations. We show that strategies of building up a desired unitary out of non-infinitesimal and infinitesimal unitaries, or equivalently, using power and band limited controls, can yield the best possible scaling in time $O(d^2)$.
The Schrödinger equation is solved for the case of a particle confined to a small region of a box with infinite walls. If walls of the well are moved, then, due to an effective quantum nonlocal interaction with the boundary, even though the particle is nowhere near the walls, it will be affected. It is shown that this force apart from a minus sign is equal to the expectation value of the gradient of the quantum potential for vanishing at the walls boundary condition. Variation of this force with time is studied. A selection of Bohmian trajectories of the confined particle is also computed.
We study quantum chaos in a non-KAM system, i.e. a kicked particle in a one-dimensional infinite square potential well. Within the perturbative regime the classical phase space displays stochastic web structures, and the diffusion coefficient D in the regime increases with the perturbative strength K giving a scaling $D \propto K^{2.5}$, and in the large K regime D goes as K^2. Quantum mechanically, we observe that the level spacing statistics of the quasi eigenenergies changes from Poisson to Wigner distribution as the kick strength increases. The quasi eigenstates show power-law localization…
