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American Journal of Physics

The total probability current and the quantum period

Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond

Published Feb 1, 1987• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Starting from the standard current density of probability for a quantum particle in a potential V(r), the total probability current in a stationary state is considered and investigated. Its physical interpretation leads to a natural definition of the time period for such a quantum stationary state. A simple and elegant formula relates the total current to the energy level of the state. This formula is shown to be consistent with the Correspondence Principle. The results are applied to the hydrogen atom and the harmonic oscillator.

DOI
10.1119/1.15232

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Starting from the standard current density of probability for a quantum particle in a potential V(r), the total probability current in a stationary state is considered and investigated. Its physical interpretation leads to a natural definition of the time period for such a quantum stationary state. A simple and elegant formula relates the total current to the energy level of the state. This formula is shown to be consistent with the Correspondence Principle. The results are applied to the hydrogen atom and the harmonic oscillator.
We revisit the definition of the probability current for the Schrodinger equation. First, we prove that the Dirac probability currents of stationary wave functions of the hydrogen atom and of the isotrop harmonic oscillator are not nil and correspond to a circular rotation of the probability. Then, we recall how it is necessary to add to classical Pauli and Schrodinger currents, an additional spin-dependant current, the Gordan current. Consequently, we get a circular probability current in the Schrodinger approximation for the hydrogen atom and the isotrop harmonic oscillator.
Applying the concept of quantum hydrodynamics on a hydrogen atom, one can derive an equation of motion which describes the time derivative of the mass current density for the relative motion of the electron and the proton. Since this derivation can be performed with the Ehrenfest theorem, we call this equation the Ehrenfest equation of motion. As quantum hydrodynamics is consistent with Schrödinger's quantum mechanics, the stationary s-wave functions satisfy both the Schrödinger equation and the Ehrenfest equation of motion. It is the purpose of this paper to prove that the stationary s-wave functions satisfy the Ehrenfest equation of motion. From the quantum hydrodynamical point of view, this result for s-wave functions can be interpreted that the Coulomb force density that attracts the electron to the proton is compensated by a quantum force density that is related to the dispersion of the probability density.
It is shown that the imaginary part of ψ*Pψ plays a crucial role in describing the dispersive properties of probability densities in quantum mechanics. The quantity Im(ψ*Pψ) is proportional to the dispersive velocity of the probability density and has the same form as the diffusion current. The dispersive velocity does not contribute to the expectation value of the momentum operator, but contributes to the expectation value of the kinetic energy operator. The interpretation of the dispersive velocity is given for the one-dimensional Gaussian wave packet, the stationary states of a particle in a one-dimensional box, and the stationary states of the hydrogen atom.
Abstract The uncertainty principle is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics, but its exact mathematical expression cannot obtain correct results when used to solve theoretical problems such as the energy levels of hydrogen atoms, one-dimensional deep potential wells, one-dimensional harmonic oscillators, and double-slit experiments. Even after approximate treatment, the results obtained are not completely consistent with those obtained by solving Schrödinger’s equation. This indicates that further research on the uncertainty principle is necessary. Therefore, using the de Broglie matter wave hypothesis, we quantize the action of an elementary particle in natural coordinates and obtain the quantization condition and a new deterministic relation. Using this quantization condition, we obtain the energy level formulas of an elementary particle in different conditions in a classical way that is completely consistent with the results obtained by solving Schrödinger’s equation. A new physical interpretation is given for the particle eigenfunction independence of probability for an elementary particle: an elementary particle is in a particle state at the space-time point where the action is quantized, and in a wave state in the rest of the space-time region. The space-time points of particle nature and the wave regions of particle motion constitute the continuous trajectory of particle motion. When an elementary particle is in a particle state, it is localized, whereas in the wave state region, it is nonlocalized.
The one-dimensional totally asymmetric simple exclusion process, a Markov process describing classical hard-core particles hopping in the same direction, is considered on a periodic lattice of L sites. The relaxation to the nonequilibrium steady state, which occurs on the time scale t∼L^{3/2} for large L, is studied for the half-filled system with N=L/2 particles. Using large L asymptotics of Bethe ansatz formulas for the eigenstates, exact expressions depending explicitly on the rescaled time t/L^{3/2} are obtained for the average and two-point function of the local density, and for the current fluctuations for simple (stationary, flat and step) initial conditions, relating previous results for the infinite system to stationary large deviations. The final formulas have a nice interpretation in terms of a functional integral with the action of a scalar field in a linear potential.