Revision as of 11:47, 15 December 2017

Introduction

The quantum world is governed by the Schrödinger equation

\[{\displaystyle {\hat {H}}|\psi (t)\rangle =i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial t}}|\psi (t)\rangle } \]

where $\hat H$ is the Hamiltonian, $|\psi (t)\rangle$ is the quantum state function and $\hbar$ is the reduced Planck constant.

The Hamiltonian consists of kinetic energy $\hat T$ and potential energy $\hat V$. As in classical mechanics, potential energy is a function of time and space, whereas the kinetic energy differs from the classical world and is calculated as

\[\hat T = - \frac{\hbar^2}{2m} \nabla^2 .\]

The final version of the single particle Schrödinger equation can be written as

\[\left(- \frac{\hbar^2}{2m} \nabla^2 + V(t, \mathbf r)\right) \psi(t, \mathbf r) = i\hbar {\frac {\partial }{\partial t}}\psi(t, \mathbf r) \]