Admissibility conditions for wave functions are derived from general quantum-mechanical principles. The conditions apply in general curvilinear coordinates to functions that describe general N-particle systems. They restrict the behavior of wave functions so severely as to suggest that the Hilbert space of ordinary quantum mechanics cannot be enlarged unless the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics are modified. One of the conditions implies that all particles must be either fermions or bosons, i.e., that no particles obeying intermediate statistics can exist.
Admissibility conditions for wave functions are derived from general quantum-mechanical principles. The conditions apply in general curvilinear coordinates to functions that describe general N-particle systems. They restrict the behavior of wave functions so severely as to suggest that the Hilbert space of ordinary quantum mechanics cannot be enlarged unless the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics are modified. One of the conditions implies that all particles must be either fermions or bosons, i.e., that no particles obeying intermediate statistics can exist.
We have seen in the previous chapter how useful wave mechanics can be in solving physical problems. But wave mechanics has several limitations. It describes physical states by means of wave functions, which are functions of the positions of the particles of the system, but why should we single out position as the fundamental physical observable? For instance, we might want to describe states in terms of probability amplitudes for particles to have certain values of the momentum or energy rather than the position. A more fundamental limitation is that there are attributes of physical systems that cannot be described at all in terms of the positions and momenta of a set of particles. One of these attributes is spin , which will be a chief subject of Chapter 4. Another is the value of the electric or magnetic field at some point in space, treated in Chapter 11. This chapter will describe the principles of quantum mechanics in a formalism which is essentially the “transformation theory” of Dirac, mentioned briefly in Section 1.4. This formalism generalizes both the wave mechanics of Schrödinger and the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg, and is sufficiently comprehensive to apply to any sort of physical system. States The first postulate of quantum mechanics is that physical states can be represented as vectors in a sort of abstract space known as Hilbert space . Before getting into Hilbert space, I need to say a bit about vectors in general. In kindergarten we learn that vectors are quantities with both magnitude and direction. Later, when we study analytic geometry, we learn instead to describe a vector in d dimensions as a string of d numbers, the components of the vector. The latter approach lends itself well to calculation, but in some respects the kindergarten version is better, because it allows us to describe relations among vectors without specifying a coordinate system. For instance, a statement that one vector is parallel to a second vector, or perpendicular to a third, has nothing to do with how we choose our coordinate system. Here we will formulate what we mean by vector spaces in general, and Hilbert space in particular, in a way that is independent of the coordinates we use to describe directions in these spaces.
We have seen in the previous chapter how useful wave mechanics can be in solving physical problems. But wave mechanics has several limitations. It describes physical states by means of wave functions, which are functions of the positions of the particles of the system, but why should we single out position as the fundamental physical observable? For instance, we might want to describe states in terms of probability amplitudes for particles to have certain values of the momentum or energy rather than the position. A more fundamental limitation: There are attributes of physical systems that cannot be described at all in terms of the positions and momenta of a set of particles. One of these attributes is spin , which will be the subject of Chapter 4. Another is the value of the electric or magnetic field at some point in space, treated in Chapter 11. This chapter will describe the principles of quantum mechanics in a formalism which is essentially the “transformation theory” of Dirac, mentioned briefly in Section 1.4. This formalism generalizes both the wave mechanics of Schrödinger and the matrix mechanics of Heisenberg, and is sufficiently comprehensive to apply to any sort of physical system. States The first postulate of quantum mechanics is that physical states can be represented as vectors in a sort of abstract space known as Hilbert space . Before getting into Hilbert space, I need to say a bit about vectors in general. In kindergarten we learn that vectors are quantities with both magnitude and direction. Later, when we study analytic geometry, we learn instead to describe a vector in d dimensions as a string of d numbers, the components of the vector. This latter approach lends itself well to calculation, but in some respects the kindergarten version is better, because it allows us to describe relations among vectors without specifying a coordinate system. For instance, a statement that one vector is parallel to a second vector, or perpendicular to a third, has nothing to do with how we choose our coordinate system.
A study was made of the general conditions required to set up a non- relativistic functional theory for systems of particles. Representation of each particle of a system by a space-time function uj(P,T). Formal classification for the particles of the system with respect to indiscernability and the exclusion principle for the fermions. Using the general theory of predictions, the arguments of the functional for predictions are fixed, functional configuration- space is introduced, and the general form of the equation for the predictional elements is determined. Conditions incurred by the limiting cases of the usual wave mechanics for systems and of the single particle in the functional theory of particles. Fundamental principle for the equations of motion concerning the particles of a system: each function uj(P,T) describing a particle of the system obeys a non-linear equation which depends upon the functions u/sub k/(P,T) of the other particles of the system. Brief investigation of the limiting case of classical mechanics. (auth)
The behavior of classical macroscopic particles – from baseballs to planets – is governed by Newtonian mechanics as we have described in the first chapters of this book. The behavior of very small particles, on the other hand, is governed by an entirely different collection of equations and rules that go under the name of “quantum mechanics” and these particles are referred to as quantum particles. These rules have analogies to classical mechanics, but are fundamentally different and somewhat mysterious as we discussed in Chapter 8. The fundamental principles of quantum mechanics cannot be proven to be correct. They were developed based on the results of experimental observation, by analogy with classical mechanics, and through the consideration of logical implications of the formalisms used. There is no way to derive the fundamental elements of quantum mechanics, any more than one could predict from first principles that Newtonian forces should add as vectors. On the other hand, quantum mechanics is among the most rigorously tested theories in science, and the predictions of quantum mechanics have, so far, always been in agreement with experiment. In this chapter, we will present quantum mechanics as a series of postulates and examine their implications in application to simple one-dimensional systems. In the next chapter we will examine quantum effects in real systems including atoms, molecules, crystals, and artificially engineered nano-structures. Postulates of quantum mechanics QM Postulate 1: A quantum particle is described by a wave function Ψ( x , y , z , t ) which is a function of spatial coordinates and time. All physically determinable quantities can be derived from the wave function Ψ( x , y , z , t ) ; quantities which cannot be found from the wave function are not physically meaningful. Note that some things that one could ask about a quantum particle, for example the exact position and simultaneous exact momentum of a particle, are not derivable from the wave function and are therefore considered indeterminate (or uncertain ). These are things which cannot ever be known about a particle, and, as such, they are meaningless to contemplate.
Abstract It is shown that the dispute about the conditions for physical admissibility of Schrödinger wave functions may be settled if the following two questions are clarified: (a) Are these condittions rooted in the foundations of quantum mechanics or invoked only for particular physical models? (b) Do we consider either the position‐space wave function or the momentum‐space wave function? Both the case of closed states and scattering states are considered. Some general remarks about these conditions are made in the Conclusion.
Density distribution function of classical statistical mechanics is generally generalized as a product of a general complex function and its complex Hermitian conjugate function, and the average of classical statistical mechanics is generalized as the average of the quantum mechanics. Furthermore, this paper derives three ones of the five axiom presumptions of quantum mechanics, makes the three axiom presumptions into three theorems of quantum mechanics, not only solves the crisis to hard understand, but also gets new theories and new discoveries, e.g., this paper solves the crisis of the origin of the wave-particle duality (i.e., complementary principle), derives operators, eigenvalues and eigenstates, deduces commutation relations for coordinate and momentum as well as the time and energy, and discovers quantum mechanics is just a generalization ( mechanics ) theory of the square root of ( density function of ) classical statistical mechanics, which will make people renew thinking modern physics development. In addition, this paper discovers the reason why the time derivative of Schrȍdinger doesn’t takes the derivative of space coordinates. Therefore, this paper gives solution to the Crisis of the first quantization origin.