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European Journal of Physics

Completeness and orthonormality of the energy eigenfunctions of the Dirac delta derivative potential

M A Dalabeeh, Noureddine Chair

Published Jan 18, 2022• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The orthonormality and completeness of the energy eigenfunctions solution for the Schrödinger equation are usually hard to prove explicitly. There are few examples treated in the literature that give an explicit demonstration of these properties. In this work, we are going to orthonormalize the energy eigenfunctions of the solutions of the Schrödinger equation with contact potential given by the Dirac delta derivative potential λδ′(x), where λ is the coupling constant and prove that they are complete. The solutions for this problem include both continuum and discrete energy spectra. This makes it a perfect choice in the sense that it covers all possible cases of the solutions in quantum mechanics. The bound states solutions are normalized as usual, while the scattering states are normalized in continuum sense. The scattering solutions are shown to be orthogonal to each other and to the bound states. Using these orthonormal eigenfunctions an explicit demonstration of the completeness is given. It is found that both the bound and scattering solutions should be considered to ensure completeness. The calculation shows that the scattering state solutions are complete by themselves except for a certain value of the energy eigenvalue. This energy eigenvalue was shown to be precisely consistent with the energy eigenvalue of the bound state.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6404/ac4c89

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Abstract The orthonormality and completeness of the energy eigenfunctions solution for the Schrödinger equation are usually hard to prove explicitly. There are few examples treated in the literature that give an explicit demonstration of these properties. In this work, we are going to orthonormalize the energy eigenfunctions of the solutions of the Schrödinger equation with contact potential given by the Dirac delta derivative potential λδ′(x), where λ is the coupling constant and prove that they are complete. The solutions for this problem include both continuum and discrete energy spectra. This makes it a perfect choice in the sense that it covers all possible cases of the solutions in quantum mechanics. The bound states solutions are normalized as usual, while the scattering states are normalized in continuum sense. The scattering solutions are shown to be orthogonal to each other and to the bound states. Using these orthonormal eigenfunctions an explicit demonstration of the completeness is given. It is found that both the bound and scattering solutions should be considered to ensure completeness. The calculation shows that the scattering state solutions are complete by themselves except for a certain value of the energy eigenvalue. This energy eigenvalue was shown to be precisely consistent with the energy eigenvalue of the bound state.
There are a few exactly solvable potentials in quantum mechanics for which the completeness relation of the energy eigenstates can be explicitly verified. In this article, we give an elementary proof that the set of bound (discrete) states together with the scattering (continuum) states of the reflectionless potential form a complete set. We also review a direct and elegant derivation of the energy eigenstates with proper normalization by introducing an analog of the creation and annihilation operators of the harmonic oscillator problem. We further show that, in the case of a single bound state, the corresponding wave function can be found from the knowledge of continuum eigenstates of the system. Finally, completeness is shown by using the even/odd parity eigenstates of the Hamiltonian, which provides another explicit demonstration of a fundamental property of quantum mechanical Hamiltonians.
Abstract: This work considered the infinite square well in one dimension with a contact potential. The Dirac delta derivative function potential λδ^' where λ is a coupling constant was used to represent the contact potential. Using Green’s function technique, exact implicit expressions of the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions were obtained. The energy eigenvalues were expressed using a transcendental equation. The energy eigenfunctions satisfy the Schrödinger equation and the infinite square well boundary conditions. Also, the eigenfunctions and their first derivative were shown to be discontinuous. The values of these discontinuity jumps agreed with the required conditions for a self-adjoint extension Hamiltonian. In the weak coupling region, the energy eigenvalues are close to that of the even parity solution before adding the contact potential. The energy eigenvalues in the strong coupling regime reveal the energy eigenvalues of the odd parity solution. Keywords: Point interactions, Infinite square well, Green’s function technique. PACS numbers: 03.65.-w, 03.65.Db, 03.65.Ge
Unlike the situation for the 1d Dirac delta derivative Schrodinger pseudo potential (SPP) and the 2d Dirac delta SPP, where the indeterminacy originates from a lack of scale in the first and both a lack of scale as well as the wave function not being well defined at the support of the generalized function SPP; the obstruction in 3d Euclidean space for the Schrodinger equation with the Dirac delta as a SPP only comes from the wave function (the L2L^2L2 bound sate solution) being singular at the compact point support of the Dirac delta function (measure). The problem is solved here in a completely mathematically rigorous manner with no recourse to renormalization nor regularization. The method involves a distributionally generalized version of the Schrodinger theory as developed by the author, which regards the formal symbol "HψHψHψ" as an element of the space of distributions, the topological dual vector space to the space of smooth functions with compact support. Two main facts come to light. The first is the bound state energy of such a system can be calculated in a well-posed context, the value of which agrees with both the mathematical and theoretical physics literature. The second is that there is then a rigorous distributional version of the Hellmann-Feynman theorem.
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.
Bound state solutions of the Schrödinger equation have been investigated for n -dimensional ( n ⩾ 2) harmonic oscillator potential decorated with any finite number ( P ) of Dirac delta functions. The potential is radially symmetric and given as , where σ i s are arbitrary real numbers, r 1 < r 2 < ⋅⋅⋅ < r P and r i ∊ (0, + ∞). We have demonstrated that addition of Dirac delta functions lifts the accidental degeneracies of n -dimensional harmonic oscillator energy levels and leaves only the degeneracy due to the radial symmetry. Explicit forms of bound state eigenfunctions and the eigenvalue equation are given for n , l values, where n is the space dimension and l is the degree of n -dimensional spherical harmonics. We have shown that, for given n and l , there are a countably infinite number of bound state energy levels which are continuous functions of ω, σ i s and at most P of them can be negative.