The Math Behind the Schrodinger Equation

Selçuk Ş. Bayın

Hawkins and Schwarz [J. Math. Phys. 54, 014101 (2013)]10.1063/1.4772533 claim that there is a flaw in the way certain integrals are evaluated to show the consistency of the infinite square well solutions of the space fractional Schrödinger equation [S. S. Bayin, J. Math. Phys. 53, 042105 (2012)10.1063/1.4705268; S. S. Bayin, J. Math. Phys. 53, 084101 (2012)]10.1063/1.4739758. We give additional details about how these integrals are evaluated and show that there is no inconsistency for an infinite square well.

Jochen Pade

Yuri Luchko

In this paper, the fractional Schrödinger equation that contains the quantum Riesz fractional derivative instead of the Laplace operator is revisited for the case of a particle moving in the infinite potential well. In the recent papers [M. Jeng, S.-L.-Y. Xu, E. Hawkins, and J. M. Schwarz, “On the nonlocality of the fractional Schrödinger equation,” J. Math. Phys. 51, 062102 (2010)10.1063/1.3430552] and [S. S. Bayin, “On the consistency of the solutions of the space fractional Schrödinger equation,” J. Math. Phys. 53, 042105 (2012)10.1063/1.4705268] published in this journal, controversial opinions regarding solutions to the fractional Schrödinger equation for a particle moving in the infinite potential well that were derived by Laskin [“Fractals and quantum mechanics,” Chaos 10, 780–790 (2000)10.1063/1.1050284] have been given. In this paper, a thorough mathematical treatment of these matters is provided. The problem under consideration is reformulated in terms of three integral equations with the power kernels. Even if the equations look not very complicated, no solution to these equations in explicit form is known. Still, the obtained equations are used to show that the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the fractional Schrödinger equation for a particle moving in the infinite potential well given by Laskin [“Fractals and quantum mechanics,” Chaos 10, 780–790 (2000)10.1063/1.1050284] and many other papers by different authors cannot be valid as has been first stated by Jeng et al. [“On the nonlocality of the fractional Schrödinger equation,” J. Math. Phys. 51, 062102 (2010)10.1063/1.3430552].

Jochen Pade

John H. Marburger

Schrödinger’s equation and the “wave function” that satisfies it are the first bold brushstrokes of a new portrait of Nature that physicists gradually filled in during the middle half of the twentieth century. The emerging pattern was strange, but not entirely alien to science. It was drawn, to paraphrase Galileo, in a mathematical idiom “without some knowledge of which it is humanly impossible to understand.” While nonmathematical accounts are conceivable, I would rather at this point say more about the mathematics because it will deepen our view of the whole enterprise of modern physics. Most people never get beyond the “math is numbers and numbers are boring” barrier that hides behind it a limitless universe of beautiful things. So let us delve briefly into the nonboring side of mathematics.