Monday, July 18, 2016

Quantum state where uncertainty in kinetic energy is zero?



While reading Shankar's book on Quantum Mechanics, I encountered an interesting problem:



Compute ΔTΔX, where T=P2/2m.



I found several solutions online which arrive at the result ΔTΔX0.


My question is: does there exist a state |ψ which saturates this inequality, i.e. for which ΔTΔX=0? We know ΔX0 (from the uncertainty relation between X and P), so then we must surely have that ΔT=0. But I'm struggling to imagine a physical state with a well-defined kinetic energy! If it is indeed possible, please provide an example of such a state. Thanks!




No comments:

Post a Comment

classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...