Normalizing the Wavefunction

Let a harmonic oscillator be described by the wavefunction

ψ ( x ) = A x e x 2 . \psi (x)=Ax{ e }^{ -{ x }^{ 2 } }.

Determine the normalization constant A A .


The answer is 1.786.

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1 solution

Lucas Tell Marchi
Mar 11, 2016

The probability density is

d P ( x ) = A 2 x 2 e 2 x 2 d x dP(x) = A^{2} x^{2} e^{-2x^{2}} dx

Therefore, we can do this:

+ A 2 x 2 e 2 x 2 d x = [ A 2 2 α + e 2 α x 2 d x ] α = 1 = A 2 4 π 2 = 1 \int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} A^{2} x^{2} e^{-2x^{2}} dx = \left [-\frac{A^{2}}{2} \frac{\partial }{\partial \alpha} \int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} e^{-2\alpha x^{2}} dx \right ]_{\alpha = 1} = \frac{A^{2}}{4} \sqrt{\frac{\pi}{2}} = 1

And then

A = 2 ( 2 π ) 1 / 4 A = 2 \left (\frac{2}{\pi} \right )^{1/4}

Could you please do math with more description?

Sumitra Barua - 3 years, 6 months ago

I dont understand the second step.

Devin Dogan - 2 years, 3 months ago

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Lucas used the fact that "...the probability of finding the particle anywhere in the entire space is 100%". Meaning that the sum of the probabilities must be 1, so he took the integral and equaled it to 1.

Michelle Fernández - 11 months ago

You can also do it in sorta the same way through integration by parts, and THEN use Gaussian integral.

M. V. G. - 1 year, 11 months ago

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