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Assignment 3: Pair production, Bragg’s reflection, De Broglie’s Hypothesis and

Uncertainty principle

Assignment 3: Wakelike properties of particles

1. In a diffraction experiment in which electrons of kinetic energy 110 eV are scattered


from a crystal, a first maximum in the intensity of the scattered electrons occurs at an
angle θ = 10.7◦ . (a) What is the spacing between the crystal planes? (b) How many
peaks will be there in the interference pattern?

2. Thermal neutrons incident on a sodium chloride crystal (interatomic spacing


2.81 Å) undergo first order diffraction from the principle Bragg planes at an angle
of 20◦ . What is the energy of the thermal neutrons? What is their temperature? (Use
the principle of equipartition of energy treating the neutrons as point particles. The
mass of a neutron is 1.67 × 10−27 kg.)

3. Calculate the kinetic energy of a proton of wavelength 0.5 fm? Use relativistic expres-
sions. The rest mass of a proton is 1.67 × 10−27 kg.

4. A measurement establishes the position of a proton with an accuracy of ±1.00 ×


10−11 m. Find the uncertainty in the proton’s position 1.00 sec later. Assume that
the speed of the proton v ¿ c. Does the uncertainty increase or decrease with time?

5. An excited electron in an Na atom emits radiation at a wavelength 589 nm and returns


to the ground state. If the mean time for the transition is about 20 ns, calculate the
natural width of the emission line. What the “length” of the photon wavepacket?

6. Find the uncertainty in the location of a particle, in terms of its de Broglie wavelength
λ, so that the uncertainty in its velocity is equal to its velocity.

7. Suppose at t = 0, a system is in a state given by the wavefunction,

1
ψ(x, 0) = √ |x| < a/2
a
= 0 otherwise.

If, at the same instant, the momentum of the particle is measured, what are the
possible values that can be found and with what probability? One may like to use

Chapter 3 of Eisberg and Resnick; Due date: 28 September 2009 1


Assignment 3: Pair production, Bragg’s reflection, De Broglie’s Hypothesis and
Uncertainty principle

these results for the Fourier transformation between momentum and real spaces.
Z
ψ(x, 0) = A(k) eikx dk
Z
1
A(k) = ψ(x, 0) e−ikx dx.

8. The momentum of a particle is precisely measured at ~k0 . This means the wavepacket
in momentum space is given by the delta function,

A(k) = δ(k − k0 ).

What is the wavefunction in real space and how large is the position uncertainty?

9. Special relativity tells us that no material particle can travel faster than light. Consider
an electron with relativistic energy E = mc2 , m being the relativistic mass. The
energy can also be expressed in terms of the relativistic momentum p and the rest
mass, E 2 = (m0 c2 )2 + (pc)2 . Find the phase and group velocities of the electron. You
will notice that under some conditions, the phase velocity can exceed the speed of
light. How do you resolve this paradox?

10. Why do electron microscopes have a higher resolution than optical microscopes?

11. A harmonic oscillator has energy,

p2 1
E= + mω 2 x2 , (1)
2m 2

where ω is the frequency of the oscillator. Classically x = 0, p = 0 results in a


minimum energy equal to zero. Now use the uncertainty principle to estimate the
minimum energy. Assume ∆p ∼ p and ∆x ∼ x.

Chapter 3 of Eisberg and Resnick; Due date: 28 September 2009 2

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