Quantum Mechanics. Homework II.

Alfredo Vidal Arias

May 6, 2014
We will consider the following interaction potential corresponding to a particle moving in one
dimension
V (x) =
_

_
+ x < a
V
o
a x b
0 x > b
Then, the time-independent Schrodinger equation can be written (for x > a) as

x
2
=
_
2m(E V )
h
2
_

where E V
o
in order to verify that the kinetic energy is positive. We are going to solve the
Schr odinger equation assuming also that V
o
< E < 0.
For a x b

x
2
=
_
2m(E +V
o
)
h
2
_
=
2
=(x) = Asin [(x b)] +Bcos [(x b)]
For the region x b

x
2
=
_

2mE
h
2
_
=
2
=(x) = Ce
(xb)
+De
(xb)
The boundary conditions that we should impose are
(a

) = (a
+
) 0 = Asin [(a b)] +Bcos [(a b)]
(b

) = (b
+
) B = C +D

=

x

b
+
A = (D C)
even more, we know that the function has to be nite and so an extra condition arises D = 0,
and the boundary conditions can be rewritten as B = C and
A = B
Asin [(a b)] = Bcos [(a b)]
1
so the following condition has to be fullled
1

sin [(a b)] =

1

cos [(a b)]

so, in terms of the energy (E) and the potential (V
o
)
_
_

2mE
h
2
_
sin
_
(a b)
_
2m(E +V
o
)
h
2
_
=
_
_
2m(E +V
o
)
h
2
_
cos
_
(a b)
_
2m(E +V
o
)
h
2
_
We analyse the case in which a = 1, b = 3 and h
2
/2m = 32/
2
for V
o
= 1 and V
o
= 4.
The following gures show the solutions of the above equation, being the blue line the
corresponding to the left hand side of the equation and the red the corresponding to the
right hand side
1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
E
V
o
= 1
4 3 2 1 0
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0.2
0.4
E
V
o
= 4
the rst one does not have solutions for negative values of the energy, however for V
o
= 4 we
nd one energy state at E 0.7242, which we plot in the following graphic
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
0
x

(
x
)
There also exists a last condition to impose, that is normalization and which links the
coecients A and B
_

(x)

(x)dx = 1, however we are not going to compute it.

2
If we will consider the state with energy E = 0. Then we can easily solve the Schr odinger
equation
For x a we have (x) = 0
For a x b

x
2
=
_
2mV
o
h
2
_
=
2
(x) = Asin [(x b)] +Bcos [(x b)]
For x > b

x
2
= 0 (x) = Cx +D
We also have to impose the boundary conditions
(a

) = (a
+
) 0 = Asin [(a b)] +Bcos [(a b)]
(b

) = (b
+
) B = Cb +D

=

x

b
+
A = C
We nd an additional condition that is that the wave function have to be bounded, so C = 0,
and immediately A = 0 and B = D and the quantization condition arises
Bcos [(a b)] = 0 =
(2n + 1)
2(a b)
n N
Then the wave equation for this potential at E = 0 can be written in terms of an arbitrary
constant B (since the function is not normalizable) and have to fulll the quantization
condition.
(x) =
_

_
0 x < 0
Bcos [(x b)] a x b
B x > b
with =
(2n + 1)
2(a b)
n N
This kind of potentials only admit zero energy state solutions if V
o
fulll V
o
=
(2n+1)
2

2
h
2
8m(ab)
2
,
which can be veried as a limit of the general case for V
o
< E < 0, illustrated in the
following graphic for the simplest case n = 0 V
o
= 2
2 1.5 1 0.5 0
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
E
V
o
= 2
3