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arXiv:1109.3077 · European Journal of Physics

Solution of the quantum harmonic oscillator plus a delta-function potential at the origin: the oddness of its even-parity solutions

José Viana‐Gomes, Nuno M. R. Peres

Published Aug 12, 2011• 32 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We derive the energy levels associated with the even-parity wavefunctions of the harmonic oscillator with an additional delta-function potential at the origin. Our results bring to the attention of students a non-trivial and analytical example of a modification of the usual harmonic oscillator potential, with emphasis on the modification of the boundary conditions at the origin. This problem calls the attention of the students to an inaccurate statement in quantum mechanics textbooks often found in the context of the solution of the harmonic oscillator problem.

DOI
10.1088/0143-0807/32/5/025

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We derive the energy levels associated with the even-parity wavefunctions of the harmonic oscillator with an additional delta-function potential at the origin. Our results bring to the attention of students a non-trivial and analytical example of a modification of the usual harmonic oscillator potential, with emphasis on the modification of the boundary conditions at the origin. This problem calls the attention of the students to an inaccurate statement in quantum mechanics textbooks often found in the context of the solution of the harmonic oscillator problem.
Abstract: In this work, the problem of the quantum harmonic oscillator with a delta-derivative potential λδ^' (x), where λ is a coupling constant, is solved using the Green’s function technique. A transcendental equation that governs the energy eigenvalues of the problems for each coupling constant is obtained. The eigenfunctions and their first derivative are proved to be discontinuous at the origin. The values of the discontinuity jumps are found to agree with the requirements of having a self-adjoint extension Hamiltonian. In the large coupling limit, the even energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the quantum harmonic oscillator are annihilated, and only the odd parts survive. The dependence of the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions on the sign of λ was made clear. A mapping between the sign of λ and the positions of the particle was used to explain the discontinuity of the solution. In the large-λ regime, an educated guess for the wave functions was proposed. The proposed solutions led to the correct energy eigenvalues and obeyed the required conditions to have a self-adjoint extension Hamiltonian.
Trial wave function was used to calculate ground state energy to obtain a relatively accurate value.After adding potential δ to one-dimensional harmonic oscillator,the odd parity stationary states of the harmonic oscillator still held and the even parity stationary states were no longer correct. Therefore,the perturbation theory and variational method were used respectively to calculate the approximate even parity stationary states,and variational method was used to solve Schrodinger equation.Results show that the calculated approximate even parity stationary states match well with the desired value,especially in excited state,the relative error is less than×10-3,and all the approximate values of energy for all levels are higher than desired value,which prove that it is simple and feasible by using perturbation theory or variational method to calculate approximate even parity stationary states with δ potential added.
We write a computer program that uses the recursion relation to calculate wave function in the harmonic-oscillator potential for specified values of E/hv (with its deviation 0.001) containing only even numbers of v (0,2,4,...). In this work, differential equations are solved by power series methods, i.e. the Schrodinger equation stationary state wavefunction of the harmonic-oscillator. This technique is applied to obtain the wavefunction of the quantum harmonic oscillator and is at a more sophisticated level than elsewhere in the course of quantum physics. For the able student this can be a worthwhile extension to the work on the harmonic-oscillator.
Courses on undergraduate quantum mechanics usually focus on solutions of the Schrödinger equation for several simple one-dimensional examples. When the notion of a Hilbert space is introduced, only academic examples are used, such as the matrix representation of Dirac’s raising and lowering operators or the angular momentum operators. We introduce some of the same one-dimensional examples as matrix diagonalization problems, with a basis that consists of the infinite set of square well eigenfunctions. Undergraduate students are well equipped to handle such problems in familiar contexts. We pay special attention to the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator. This paper should equip students to obtain the low lying bound states of any one-dimensional short range potential.