This Quantum World PDF

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Atoms
Whatdoesanatomlooklike?
Likethis?

Orlikethis?

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Noneoftheseimagesdepictsanatom asitis.Thisisbecauseitisimpossibletoevenvisualizeanatom asitis.Whereasthebestyoucandowiththeimages inthefirstrowistoerasethemfromyourmemory,theyrepresentawayofviewingtheatomthatistoosimplifiedforthewaywewanttostartthinkingabout it,theeightfuzzyimagesinthenextrowdeservescrutiny.Eachrepresentsanaspectofastationarystateofatomichydrogen.Youseeneitherthenucleus(a proton)northeelectron.Whatyouseeisafuzzyposition.Tobeprecise,whatyouseeisacloudlikeblur,whichissymmetricalabouttheverticalaxis,and whichrepresentstheatom'sinternalrelativepositionthepositionoftheelectronrelativetotheproton orthepositionoftheprotonrelativetotheelectron. Whatisthe stateofanatom? Whatisa stationarystate? Whatexactlyisa fuzzyposition? Howdoessuchablurrepresenttheatom'sinternalrelativeposition? Whycanwenotdescribetheatom'sinternalrelativeposition asitis?
Quantumstates
Inquantummechanics, statesareprobabilityalgorithms.Weusethemtocalculatetheprobabilitiesofthepossibleoutcomesofmeasurementsonthebasis ofactualmeasurementoutcomes.Aquantumstatetakesasitsinput oneorseveralmeasurementoutcomes, ameasurementM, thetimeofM, andityieldsasitsoutputtheprobabilitiesofthepossibleoutcomesofM. Aquantumstateiscalled stationaryiftheprobabilitiesitassignsareindependentofthetimeofthemeasurementtothepossibleoutcomesofwhichtheyare assigned.
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Fromthemathematicalpointofview,eachblurrepresentsadensityfunction
.Imagineasmallregion
likethelittleboxinsidethefirstblur.And over youobtaintheprobability
supposethatthisisaregionofthe(mathematical)spaceofpositionsrelativetotheproton.Ifyouintegrate offindingtheelectronin providedthattheappropriatemeasurementismade:
"Appropriate"heremeanscapableofascertainingthetruthvalueoftheproposition"theelectronisin Whatweseeineachofthefollowingimagesisasurfaceofconstantprobabilitydensity.
",thepossibletruthvaluesbeing"true"or"false".
Nowimaginethattheappropriatemeasurementismade. Beforethemeasurement,theelectronisneitherinside noroutside .Ifitwereinside,the probabilityoffindingitoutsidewouldbezero,andifitwereoutside,theprobabilityoffindingitinsidewouldbezero. Afterthemeasurement,ontheother hand,theelectroniseitherinsideoroutside

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Conclusions: Beforethemeasurement,theproposition"theelectronisin "isneithertruenorfalseitlacksa(definite)truthvalue. Ameasurementgenerallychangesthestateofthesystemonwhichitisperformed. Asmentionedbefore,probabilitiesareassignednotonly tomeasurementoutcomesbutalso onthebasisof measurementoutcomes.Eachdensityfunction servestoassignprobabilitiestothepossibleoutcomesofameasurementofthepositionoftheelectronrelativetotheproton.Andineachcasethe assignmentisbasedontheoutcomesofasimultaneousmeasurementofthreeobservables:theatom'senergy(specifiedbythevalueoftheprincipalquantum number ),itstotalangularmomentum (specifiedbyaletter,here p, d,or f ),andtheverticalcomponentofitsangularmomentum .
Fuzzyobservables
Wesaythatanobservable withafiniteorcountablenumberofpossiblevalues is fuzzy(orthatithasafuzzyvalue)ifandonlyifatleastoneofthe propositions"Thevalueof is "lacksatruthvalue.Thisisequivalenttothefollowingnecessaryandsufficientcondition:theprobabilityassignedtoat leastoneofthevalues isneither0nor1. Whataboutobservablesthataregenerallydescribedascontinuous,likeaposition? Thedescriptionofanobservableas"continuous"ispotentiallymisleading.Foronething,wecannotseparateanobservableanditspossiblevaluesfroma measurementanditspossibleoutcomes,andameasurementwithanuncountablesetofpossibleoutcomesisnoteveninprinciplepossible.Foranother, thereisnotasingleobservablecalled"position".Differentpartitionsofspacedefinedifferentpositionmeasurementswithdifferentsetsofpossibleoutcomes. Corollary:Thepossibleoutcomesofapositionmeasurement(orthepossiblevaluesofapositionobservable)aredefinedbyapartitionofspace.They makeupafiniteorcountablesetof regionsofspace.Anexactpositionisthereforeneitherapossiblemeasurementoutcomenorapossiblevalueofa positionobservable. Sohowdothosecloudlikeblursrepresenttheelectron'sfuzzypositionrelativetotheproton?Strictlyspeaking,theygraphicallyrepresentprobabilitydensities inthemathematicalspaceofexactrelativepositions,ratherthanfuzzypositions.Itistheseprobabilitydensitiesthatrepresentfuzzypositionsbyallowingus tocalculatetheprobabilityofeverypossiblevalueofeverypositionobservable. Itshouldnowbeclearwhywecannotdescribetheatom'sinternalrelativeposition asitis.Todescribeafuzzyobservableistoassignprobabilitiestothe possibleoutcomesofameasurement.Butadescriptionthatrestsontheassumptionthatameasurementismade,doesnotdescribeanobservable asitis (byitself, regardlessofmeasurements).
Seriousillnessesrequiredrasticremedies
Planck
Quantummechanicsbeganasadesperatemeasuretogetaroundsomespectacularfailuresofwhatsubsequentlycametobeknownasclassicalphysics. In1900MaxPlanckdiscoveredalawthatperfectlydescribesthespectrumofaglowinghotobject.Planck'sradiationformulaturnedouttobeirreconcilable withthephysicsofhistime.(Ifclassicalphysicswereright,youwouldbeblindedbyultravioletlightifyoulookedattheburnerofastove,akatheUV catastrophe.)Atfirst,itwasjustafittothedata,"afortuitousguessataninterpolationformula"asPlanckhimselfcalledit.Onlyweekslaterdiditturnoutto
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implythequantizationofenergyfortheemissionofelectromagneticradiation:theenergy theradiation,theconstantofproportionalitybeingPlanck'sconstant . Wecanofcourseusetheangularfrequency . Thistheoryisvalidatalltemperaturesandhelpfulinexplainingradiationbyblackbodies.
ofaquantumofradiationisproportionaltothefrequency of
insteadof .IntroducingthereducedPlanckconstant
,wethenhave
Rutherford
In1911ErnestRutherfordproposedamodeloftheatombasedonexperimentsbyGeigerandMarsden.GeigerandMarsdenhaddirectedabeamofalpha particlesatathingoldfoil.Mostoftheparticlespassedthefoilmoreorlessasexpected,butaboutonein8000bouncedbackasifithadencounteredamuch heavierobject.InRutherford'sownwordsthiswasasincredibleasifyoufireda15inchcannonballatapieceoftissuepaperanditcamebackandhityou. AfteranalysingthedatacollectedbyGeigerandMarsden,Rutherfordconcludedthatthediameteroftheatomicnucleus(whichcontainsover99.9%ofthe atom'smass)waslessthan0.01%ofthediameteroftheentireatom.Hesuggestedthattheatomissphericalinshapeandtheatomicelectronsorbitthe nucleusmuchlikeplanetsorbitastar.Hecalculatedmassofelectronas1/7000thpartofmassofalphaparticle.Rutherford'satomicmodelisalsocalledthe Nuclearmodel. Theproblemofhavingelectronsorbitthenucleusthesamewaythataplanetorbitsastaristhatclassicalelectromagnetictheorydemandsthatanorbiting electronwillradiateawayitsenergyandspiralintothenucleusinabout0.51010seconds.Thiswastheworstquantitativefailureinthehistoryofphysics, underpredictingthelifetimeofhydrogenbyatleastfortyordersofmagnitude!(Thisfigureisbasedontheexperimentallyestablishedlowerboundonthe proton'slifetime.)
Bohr
In1913NielsBohrpostulatedthattheangularmomentum where Whyquantizeangularmomentum,ratherthananyotherquantity? RadiationenergyofagivenfrequencyisquantizedinmultiplesofPlanck'sconstant. Planck'sconstantismeasuredinthesameunitsasangularmomentum. Bohr'spostulateexplainednotonlythestabilityofatomsbutalsowhytheemissionandabsorptionofelectromagneticradiationbyatomsisdiscrete.In additionitenabledhimtocalculatewithremarkableaccuracythespectrumofatomichydrogenthefrequenciesatwhichitisabletoemitandabsorblight (visibleaswellasinfraredandultraviolet).Thefollowingimageshowsthevisibleemissionspectrumofatomichydrogen,whichcontainsfourlinesofthe Balmerseries. ofanorbitingatomicelectronwasquantized:its"allowed"valuesareintegralmultiplesof :
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Visibleemissionspectrumofatomichydrogen,containingfourlinesoftheBalmerseries.
Apartfromhisquantizationpostulate,Bohr'sreasoningatthispointremainedcompletely classical.Let'sassumewithBohrthattheelectron'sorbitisacircleofradius Thespeedofthe electronisthengivenby andthemagnitudeofitsaccelerationby Eliminating yields Inthecgssystemof where isthemagnitude units,themagnitudeoftheCoulombforceissimply
ofthechargeofboththeelectronandtheproton.ViaNewton's thelasttwo equationsyield where istheelectron'smass.Ifwetaketheprotontobe atrest,weobtain fortheelectron'skineticenergy. atadistance
Iftheelectron'spotentialenergyatinfinityissetto0,thenitspotentialenergy fromtheprotonisminustheworkrequiredtomoveitfrom toinfinity,
Thetotalenergyoftheelectronthusis
Wewanttoexpressthisintermsoftheelectron'sangularmomentum andmultiplyingthenumerator by andthedenominator by
Rememberingthat weobtain
andhence
NowcomesBohr'sbreakwithclassicalphysics:hesimplyreplaced valuesfortheatom'senergy:
by
.The"allowed"valuesfortheangularmomentumdefineaseriesofallowed
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Asaresult,theatomcanemitorabsorbenergyonlybyamountsequaltotheabsolutevaluesofthedifferences
oneRydberg(Ry)beingequalto
Thisisalsotheionizationenergy
ofatomichydrogentheenergy
neededtocompletelyremovetheelectronfromtheproton.Bohr'spredictedvaluewasfoundtobeinexcellentagreementwiththemeasuredvalue. Usingtwooftheaboveexpressionsfortheatom'senergyandsolvingfor weobtain radiusofthehydrogenatom,whichequals Forthegroundstate thisistheBohr
Thematuretheoryyieldsthesamefigurebutinterpretsit
asthe mostlikelydistancefromtheprotonatwhichtheelectronwouldbefoundifitsdistancefromtheprotonweremeasured.
deBroglie
In1923,tenyearsafterBohrhadderivedthespectrumofatomichydrogenbypostulatingthequantizationofangularmomentum,LouisdeBrogliehitonan explanationofwhytheatom'sangularmomentumcomesinmultiplesof Since1905,Einsteinhadarguedthatelectromagneticradiationitselfwas quantized(andnotmerelyitsemissionandabsorption,asPlanckheld).Ifelectromagneticwavescanbehavelikeparticles(nowknownasphotons),deBroglie reasoned,whycannotelectronsbehavelikewaves? Supposethattheelectroninahydrogenatomisastandingwaveonwhathassofarbeenthoughtofastheelectron'scircularorbit.(Thecrests,troughs,and nodesofastandingwavearestationary.)Forsuchawavetoexistonacircle,thecircumferenceofthelattermustbeanintegralmultipleofthewavelength oftheformer:
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Einsteinhadestablishednotonlythatelectromagneticradiationoffrequency comesinquantaofenergy momentum Usingthisformulatoeliminate fromthecondition oneobtains momentum ofaclassicalelectronwithanorbitofradius InthiswaydeBrogliederivedthecondition
butalsothatthesequantacarrya But isjusttheangular thatBohrhadsimplypostulated.
Schrdinger
Iftheelectronisastandingwave,whyshoulditbeconfinedtoacircle?AfterdeBroglie'scrucialinsightthatparticlesarewavesofsomesort,ittooklessthan threeyearsforthematurequantumtheorytobefound,notoncebuttwice,byWernerHeisenbergin1925andbyErwinSchrdingerin1926.Ifweletthe electronbeastandingwaveinthreedimensions,wehaveallittakestoarriveattheSchrdingerequation,whichisattheheartofthematuretheory. Let'skeeptoonespatialdimension.Thesimplestmathematicaldescriptionofawaveofangularwavenumber (atanyrate,ifyouarefamiliarwithcomplexnumbers)isthefunction andangularfrequency
Let'sexpressthephase
intermsoftheelectron'senergy
andmomentum
Thepartialderivativeswithrespectto and are
Wealsoneedthesecondpartialderivativeof
withrespectto :
Wethushave
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Innonrelativisticclassicalphysicsthe kineticenergyandthe kineticmomentum ofafreeparticlearerelatedviathedispersionrelation
Thisrelationalsoholdsinnonrelativisticquantumphysics.Lateryouwilllearnwhy. Inthreespatialdimensions, isthemagnitudeofavector .Iftheparticlealsohasapotentialenergy andapotentialmomentum whichcaseitis not free),andif and standfortheparticle's totalenergyand totalmomentum,respectively,thenthedispersionrelationis (in
Bythesquareofavector wemeanthedot(orscalar)product bysuchfieldsas and
.Lateryouwilllearnwhywerepresentpossibleinfluencesonthemotionofaparticle
Returningtoourfictitiousworldwithonlyonespatialdimension,allowingforapotentialenergy for and
,substitutingthedifferentialoperators wearriveattheone
and
intheresultingdispersionrelation,andapplyingbothsidesoftheresultingoperatorequationto
dimensional(timedependent) Schrdingerequation:
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Inthreespatialdimensionsandwithbothpotentialenergy substituting for and
andpotentialmomentum for
present,weproceedfromtherelation isavectorwhosecomponentsarethe
Thedifferentialoperator
differentialoperators
Theresult:
where isnowafunctionof and Thisisthethreedimensional Schrdingerequation.Innonrelativisticinvestigations(towhichthe Schrdingerequationisconfined)thepotentialmomentumcangenerallybeignored,whichiswhytheSchrdingerequationisoftengiventhisform:
The freeSchrdingerequation(withouteventhepotentialenergyterm)issatisfiedby (inthreedimensions) providedthat equals
(inonedimension)or whichistosay:
However,sincewearedealingwithahomogeneouslineardifferentialequationwhichtellsusthatsolutionsmaybeaddedand/ormultipliedbyanarbitrary constanttoyieldadditionalsolutionsanyfunctionoftheform
with
solvesthe(onedimensional)Schrdingerequation.Ifnointegrationboundariesarespecified,thenweintegrateoverthe Theconversealsoholds:everysolutionisofthisform.Thefactorinfrontoftheintegralis istheFouriertransformof whichmeansthat

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realline,i.e.,theintegralisdefinedasthelimit
presentforpurelycosmeticreasons,asyouwillrealizepresently.
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TheFouriertransformof thisintegralisfinite.
existsbecausetheintegral
isfinite.Inthenextsectionwewillcometoknowthephysicalreasonwhy
Sonowwehaveaconditionthateveryelectron"wavefunction"mustsatisfyinordertosatisfytheappropriatedispersionrelation.Ifthis(andhencethe Schrdingerequation)containseitherorbothofthepotentials and ,thenfindingsolutionscanbetough.Asabuddingquantummechanician,youwill spendaconsiderableamountoftimelearningtosolvetheSchrdingerequationwithvariouspotentials.
Born
InthesameyearthatErwinSchrdingerpublishedtheequationthatnowbearshisname,thenonrelativistictheorywascompletedbyMaxBorn'sinsightthat theSchrdingerwavefunction isactuallynothingbutatoolforcalculatingprobabilities,andthattheprobabilityofdetectingaparticle"describedby" inaregionofspace isgivenbythevolumeintegral
providedthattheappropriatemeasurementismade,inthiscaseatestfortheparticle'spresencein .Sincetheprobabilityoffindingtheparticle somewhere(nomatterwhere)hastobe1,onlyasquareintegrablefunctioncan"describe"aparticle.Thisrulesout whichisnotsquare integrable.Inotherwords,noparticlecanhaveamomentumsosharpastobegivenby timesawavevector ,ratherthanbyagenuineprobability distributionoverdifferentmomenta. Givenaprobabilitydensityfunction ,wecandefinetheexpectedvalue
andthestandarddeviation
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aswellashighermomentsof
.Bythesametoken,
and
Hereisanotherexpressionfor
Tocheckthatthetwoexpressionsareinfactequal,weplug
intothelatterexpression:
Nextwereplace
by
andshuffletheintegralswiththemathematicalnonchalancethatiscommoninphysics:
TheexpressioninsquarebracketsisarepresentationofDirac'sdeltadistribution foranycontinuousfunction
thedefiningcharacteristicofwhichis
(Incaseyoudidn'tnotice,thisproveswhatwastobeproved.)
Heisenberg
Inthesame annusmirabilisofquantummechanics,1926,WernerHeisenbergprovedthesocalled"uncertainty"relation
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Heisenbergspokeof Unschrfe,theliteraltranslationofwhichis"fuzziness"ratherthan"uncertainty".Sincetherelation ofthefactthat and positionandmomentumfollowsvia momentum(asmeasuredby .Itsaysthatthefuzzinessofaposition(asmeasuredby )mustbesuchthattheirproductequalsatleast
isaconsequence
arerelatedtoeachotherviaaFouriertransformation,weleavetheprooftothemathematicians.Thefuzzinessrelationfor )andthefuzzinessofthecorresponding
TheFeynmanroutetoSchrdinger
Theprobabilitiesofthepossibleoutcomesofmeasurementsperformedatatime aredeterminedbytheSchrdingerwavefunction .Thewave function isdeterminedviatheSchrdingerequationby Whatdetermines ?Why,theoutcomeofameasurementperformed at whatelse?Actualmeasurementoutcomesdeterminetheprobabilitiesofpossiblemeasurementoutcomes.
Tworules
Inthischapterwedevelopthequantummechanicalprobabilityalgorithmfromtwofundamentalrules.Tobeginwith,twodefinitions: Alternativesarepossiblesequencesofmeasurementoutcomes. Witheachalternativeisassociatedacomplexnumbercalled amplitude. Supposethatyouwanttocalculatetheprobabilityofapossibleoutcomeofameasurementgiventheactualoutcomeofanearliermeasurement.Hereiswhat youhavetodo: Chooseanysequenceofmeasurementsthatmaybemadeinthemeantime. Assignanamplitudetoeachalternative. Applyeitherofthefollowingrules:
RuleA:Iftheintermediatemeasurementsaremade(orifitispossibletoinferfromothermeasurementswhattheiroutcomeswouldhavebeenifthey hadbeenmade),firstsquaretheabsolutevaluesoftheamplitudesofthealternativesandthenaddtheresults. RuleB:Iftheintermediatemeasurementsarenotmade(andifitisnotpossibletoinferfromothermeasurementswhattheiroutcomeswouldhave been),firstaddtheamplitudesofthealternativesandthensquaretheabsolutevalueoftheresult. Insubsequentsectionswewillexploretheconsequencesoftheserulesforavarietyofsetups,andwewillthinkabouttheirorigintheir raisond'tre.Here weshalluseRuleBtodeterminetheinterpretationof givenBorn'sprobabilisticinterpretationof .
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Inthesocalled"continuumnormalization",theunphysicallimitofaparticlewithasharpmomentum
isassociatedwiththewavefunction
Hencewemaywrite istheamplitudefortheoutcome ofaninfinitelyprecisemomentummeasurement. istheamplitudefortheoutcome ofaninfinitely And isthe
precisepositionmeasurementperformed(attimet)subsequenttoaninfinitelyprecisemomentummeasurementwithoutcome amplitudeforobtaining byaninfinitelyprecisepositionmeasurementperformedattime Theprecedingequationthereforetellsusthatthe amplitudeforfinding at istheproductof 1. the amplitudefortheoutcome and 2. the amplitudefortheoutcome (attime )subsequenttoamomentummeasurementwithoutcome summedoverallvaluesof UndertheconditionsstipulatedbyRuleA,wewouldhaveinsteadthatthe probabilityforfinding at istheproductof 1. the probabilityfortheoutcome and 2. the probabilityfortheoutcome (attime )subsequenttoamomentummeasurementwithoutcome summedoverallvaluesof
Thelatteriswhatweexpectonthebasisofstandardprobabilitytheory.ButifthisholdsundertheconditionsstipulatedbyRuleA,thenthesameholdswith "amplitude"substitutedfrom"probability"undertheconditionsstipulatedbyRuleB.Hence,giventhat and areamplitudesforobtaining theoutcome inaninfinitelyprecisepositionmeasurement, measurement. Notes: 1. SinceRuleBstipulatesthatthemomentummeasurementisnotactuallymade,weneednotworryabouttheimpossibilityofmakinganinfinitely precisemomentummeasurement. 2. Ifwereferto as"theprobabilityofobtainingtheoutcome "whatwemeanisthat integratedoveranyintervalorsubsetofthe reallineistheprobabilityoffindingourparticleinthisintervalorsubset. istheamplitudeforobtainingtheoutcome inaninfinitelyprecisemomentum
Anexperimentwithtwoslits
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Inthisexperiment,thefinalmeasurement(tothepossibleoutcomesofwhichprobabilitiesare assigned)isthedetectionofanelectronatthebackdrop,byadetectorsituatedat D(Dbeinga particularvalueof x).Theinitialmeasurementoutcome,onthebasisofwhichprobabilitiesare assigned,isthelaunchofanelectronbyanelectrongun G.(Sinceweassumethat Gistheonly sourceoffreeelectrons,thedetectionofanelectronbehindtheslitplatealsoindicatesthelaunch ofanelectroninfrontoftheslitplate.)Thealternativesorpossibleintermediateoutcomesare theelectronwentthroughtheleftslit(L), theelectronwentthroughtherightslit(R). Thecorrespondingamplitudesare and
Hereiswhatweneedtoknowinordertocalculatethem: istheproductoftwocomplexnumbers,forwhichweshallusethesymbols and Bythesametoken, Theabsolutevalueof and B. Thephaseof Forobviousreasons isinverseproportionaltothedistance isproportionalto
Thesetup
between A
isknownasa propagator.
Whyproduct?
Recallthefuzziness("uncertainty")relation,whichimpliesthat as Inthislimittheparticle'smomentumiscompletelyindefiniteor, whatcomestothesame,hasnovalueatall.Asaconsequence,theprobabilityoffindingaparticleat B,giventhatitwaslast"seen"at A,dependsonthe initialposition Abutnotonanyinitialmomentum,inasmuchasthereisnone.Hencewhatevertheparticledoesafteritsdetectionat Aisindependentofwhat itdidbeforethen.Inprobabilitytheoretictermsthismeansthattheparticle'spropagationfrom Gto Landitspropagationfrom Lto Dareindependentevents. Sotheprobabilityofpropagationfrom Gto Dvia Listheproductofthecorrespondingprobabilities,andsotheamplitudeofpropagationfrom Gto Dvia Lis theproduct ofthecorrespondingamplitudes.
Whyistheabsolutevalueinverseproportionaltothedistance?
Imagine(i)asphereofradius whosecenteris Aand(ii)adetectormonitoringaunitareaofthesurfaceofthissphere.Sincethetotalsurfaceareais proportionalto andsinceforafreeparticletheprobabilityofdetectionperunitareaisconstantovertheentiresurface(explainwhy!),theprobabilityof detectionperunitareaisinverseproportionalto thereforeinverseproportionalto Theabsolutevalueofthe amplitudeofdetectionperunitarea,beingthesquarerootoftheprobability,is
Whyisthephaseproportionaltothedistance?
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Themultiplicativityofsuccessivepropagatorsimpliestheadditivityoftheirphases.Togetherwiththefactthat,inthecaseofafreeparticle,thepropagator (andhenceitsphase)canonlydependonthedistancebetween Aand B,itimpliestheproportionalityofthephaseof to
Calculatingtheinterferencepattern
AccordingtoRuleA,theprobabilityofdetectingat Danelectronlaunchedat Gis
Iftheslitsareequidistantfrom G,then
and
areequaland
isproportionalto
Hereistheresultingplotof
againsttheposition ofthedetector:
Predictedrelativefrequencyofdetection accordingtoRuleA
(solidline)isthesumoftwodistributions(dottedlines),onefortheelectronsthatwentthrough Landonefortheelectronsthatwentthrough R. AccordingtoRuleB,theprobability ofdetectingat Danelectronlaunchedat Gisproportionalto
where isthedifference and goeswithoutsayingthatyoushouldcheckthisresult.)
isthewavenumber,whichissufficientlysharptobeapproximatedbyanumber.(Andit
Hereistheplotof
against foraparticularsetofvaluesforthewavenumber,thedistancebetweentheslits,andthedistancebetweentheslitplateand
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Hereistheplotof thebackdrop:
against foraparticularsetofvaluesforthewavenumber,thedistancebetweentheslits,andthedistancebetweentheslitplateand
Predictedrelativefrequencyofdetection accordingtoRuleB
Observethatneartheminimatheprobabilityofdetectionis lessifbothslitsareopenthanitisifoneslitisshut.Itiscustomarytosaythatdestructive interferenceoccursattheminimaandthatconstructiveinterferenceoccursatthemaxima,but donot thinkofthisasthedescriptionofaphysicalprocess.All wemeanby"constructiveinterference"isthataprobabilitycalculatedaccordingtoRuleBisgreaterthanthesameprobabilitycalculatedaccordingtoRuleA, andallwemeanby"destructiveinterference"isthataprobabilitycalculatedaccordingtoRuleBislessthanthesameprobabilitycalculatedaccordingto RuleA. Hereishowaninterferencepatternbuildsupovertime[1]:
100electrons
3000electrons
20000electrons
70000electrons
1. A.Tonomura,J.Endo,T.Matsuda,T.Kawasaki,&H.Ezawa,"Demonstrationofsingleelectronbuildupofaninterferencepattern",American JournalofPhysics 57,117120,1989.
Bohm'sstory
HiddenVariables
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SupposethattheconditionsstipulatedbyRuleBaremet:thereisnothingnoevent,nostateofaffairs,anywhere,anytimefromwhichtheslittakenby anelectroncanbeinferred.Canitbetrue,inthiscase, thateachelectrongoesthroughasinglesliteither Lor Rand thatthebehaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughoneslitdoesnotdependonwhethertheotherslitisopenorshut? Tokeepthelanguagesimple,wewillsaythatanelectronleavesamarkwhereitisdetectedatthebackdrop.Ifeachelectrongoesthroughasingleslit,then theobserveddistributionofmarkswhenbothslitsareopenisthesumoftwodistributions,onefromelectronsthatwentthrough Landonefromelectronsthat wentthrough R:
Ifinadditionthebehaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughoneslitdoesnotdependonwhethertheotherslitisopenorshut,thenwecanobserve keeping Rshut,andwecanobserve therightdashedhump:
by
bykeeping Lshut.Whatweobserveif Risshutistheleftdashedhump,andwhatweobservedif Lisshutis
Henceiftheabovetwoconditions(aswellasthosestipulatedbyRuleB)aresatisfied,wewillseethesumofthesetwohumps.Inrealitywhatweseeisthis:
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Thusallofthoseconditionscannotbesimultaneouslysatisfied.IfRuleBapplies,theneitheritisfalsethateachelectrongoesthroughasingleslitorthe behaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughoneslitdoesdependonwhethertheotherslitisopenorshut. Whichisit? Accordingtooneattempttomakephysicalsenseofthemathematicalformalismofquantummechanics,duetoLouisdeBroglieandDavidBohm,each electrongoesthroughasingleslit,andthebehaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughoneslitdependsonwhethertheotherslitisopenorshut. Sohowdoesthestateof,say,therightslit(openorshut)affectthebehaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughtheleftslit?InbothdeBroglie'spilotwave theoryandBohmianmechanics,theelectronisassumedtobeawellbehavedparticleinthesensethatitfollowsaprecisepathitspositionatanymoment isgivenbythreecoordinatesandinadditionthereexistsawavethatguidestheelectronbyexertingonitaforce.Ifonlyoneslitisopen,thispasses throughoneslit.Ifbothslitsareopen,thispassesthroughbothslitsandinterfereswithitself(inthe"classical"senseofinterference).Asaresult,itguidesthe electronsalongwigglypathsthatclusteratthebackdropsoastoproducetheobservedinterferencepattern:
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Accordingtothisstory,thereasonwhyelectronscomingfromthesamesourceorslitarriveindifferentplaces,isthattheystartoutinslightlydifferent directionsand/orwithslightlydifferentspeeds.Ifwehadexactknowledgeoftheirinitialpositionsandmomenta,wecouldmakeanexactpredictionofeach electron'ssubsequentmotion.This,however,isimpossible.The[[../../Seriousillnesses/Born#Heisenberg|uncertaintyprinciple]]preventsusfrommakingexact predictionsofaparticle'smotion.HenceeventhoughaccordingtoBohmtheinitialpositionsandmomentaareinpossessionofprecisevalues,wecannever knowthem. Ifpositionsandmomentahaveprecisevalues,thenwhycanwenotmeasurethem?Itusedtobesaidthatthisisbecauseameasurementexertsan uncontrollableinfluenceonthevalueoftheobservablebeingmeasured.Yetthismerelyraisesanotherquestion:whydomeasurementsexertuncontrollable influences?Thismaybetrueforallpracticalpurposes,buttheuncertaintyprincipledoesnotsaythat merelyholdsforallpractical purposes.Moreover,itisn'tthecasethatmeasurementsnecessarily"disturb"thesystemsonwhichtheyareperformed. Thestatisticalelementofquantummechanicsisanessentialfeatureofthetheory.Thepostulateofanunderlyingdeterminism,whichinordertobeconsistent withthetheoryhastobea cryptodeterminism,notonlyaddsnothingtoourunderstandingofthetheorybutalsoprecludesanyproperunderstandingofthis essentialfeatureofthetheory.Thereis,infact,asimpleandobviousreasonwhyhiddenvariablesarehidden:thereasonwhytheyarestrictly(ratherthan merelyforallpracticalpurposes)unobservableisthat theydonotexist . AtonetimeEinsteininsistedthattheoriesoughttobeformulatedwithoutreferencetounobservablequantities.WhenHeisenberglatermentionedtoEinstein thatthismaximhadguidedhiminhisdiscoveryoftheuncertaintyprinciple,Einsteinrepliedsomethingtothiseffect:"EvenifIoncesaidso,itisnonsense." Hispointwasthatbeforeonehasatheory,onecannotknowwhatisobservableandwhatisnot.Oursituationhereisdifferent.Wehaveatheory,andthis tellsinnouncertaintermswhatisobservableandwhatisnot.
Propagatorforafreeandstableparticle
Thepropagatorasapathintegral
Supposethatwemake mintermediatepositionmeasurementsatfixedintervalsofduration Eachofthesemeasurementsismadewiththehelpofan arrayofdetectorsmonitoring nmutuallydisjointregions Undertheconditionsstipulatedby RuleB,thepropagator now equalsthesumofamplitudes
Itisnothardtoseewhathappensinthedoublelimit
(whichimpliesthat
)and
Themultiplesum
becomesanintegral functional
overcontinuousspacetimepathsfrom Ato B,andtheamplitude
becomesacomplexvalued
acomplexfunctionofcontinuousfunctionsrepresentingcontinuousspacetimepathsfrom Ato B:
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Theintegral valuethat
isnotyourstandardRiemannintegral
towhicheachinfinitesimalinterval
makesacontributionproportionaltothe makesacontribution
takesinsidetheinterval,butafunctionalorpathintegral,towhicheach"bundle"ofpathsofinfinitesimalwidth takesinsidethebundle.
proportionaltothevaluethat Asitstands,thepathintegral
isjusttheideaofanidea.Appropriateevalutationmethodshavetobedevisedonamoreorlesscasebycasebasis.
Afreeparticle
Nowpickanypath from Ato B,andthenpickanyinfinitesimalsegment of .Labelthestartandendpointsof byinertialcoordinates and respectively.Inthegeneralcase,theamplitude willbeafunctionof and Inthecaseofafreeparticle, orientiatonof (givenbythefourvelocity dependsneitheronthepositionof inspacetime(givenby )noronthespacetime butonlyonthepropertimeinterval
(Becauseitsnormequalsthespeedoflight,thefourvelocitydependsonthreeratherthanfourindependentparameters.Togetherwith sameinformationasthefourindependentnumbers ) Thusforafreeparticle Withthis,themultiplicativityofsuccessivepropagatorstellsusthat
theycontainthe
Itfollowsthatthereisacomplexnumber suchthat passesonaclockasittravelsfrom Ato Bvia
wherethelineintegral
givesthetimethat
Afreeandstableparticle
Byintegrating (asafunctionof )overthewholeofspace,weobtaintheprobabilityoffindingthataparticlelaunchedatthespacetimepoint
stillexistsatthetime
Forastableparticlethisprobabilityequals1:
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Ifyoucontemplatethisequationwithacalmheartandanopenmind,youwillnoticethatifthecomplexnumber theintegralbetweenthetwoequalsignswouldeitherblowup . ordropoff exponentiallyasafunctionof
hadarealpart
then
,duetotheexponentialfactor
Meaningofmass
Thepropagatorforafreeandstableparticlethushasasingle"degreeoffreedom":itdependssolelyonthevalueof Ifpropertimeismeasuredinseconds, then ismeasuredinradianspersecond.Wemaythinkof with apropertimeparametrizationof asa clockcarriedbyaparticlethattravelsfrom Ato Bvia realworld. providedwekeepinmindthatwearethinkingofanaspectofthemathematicalformalismofquantummechanicsratherthananaspectofthe
Itiscustomary toinsertaminus(sotheclockactuallyturnsclockwise!): tomultiplyby (sothatwemaythinkof astherateatwhichtheclock"ticks"thenumberofcyclesitcompleteseachsecond):
todividebyPlanck'sconstant (sothat ismeasuredinenergyunitsandcalledtherestenergyoftheparticle): andtomultiplyby (sothat ismeasuredinmassunitsandcalledtheparticle'srestmass):
Thepurposeofusingthesameletter everywhereistoemphasizethatitdenotesthesamephysicalquantity,merelymeasuredindifferentunits.Ifweuse naturalunitsinwhich ratherthanconventionalones,theidentityofthevarious 'sisimmediatelyobvious.
Fromquantumtoclassical
Action
Let'sgobacktothepropagator
Forafreeandstableparticlewefoundthat
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where theamplitude isafunctionof and
isthepropertimeintervalassociatedwiththepathelement or,equivalently,ofthecoordinates
.Forthegeneralcasewefoundthat ,thecomponents
ofthe4velocity,aswellas totheaboveamplitude,
.Foraparticlethatisstablebutnotfree,weobtain,bythesameargumentthatled
wherewehaveintroducedthefunctional
,whichgoesbythename action.
Forafreeandstableparticle, proportionalto :
isthepropertime(orproperduration)
multipliedby
,andtheinfinitesimalaction
is
Let'srecap.Weknowallaboutthemotionofastableparticleifweknowhowtocalculatetheprobability knowtheamplitude .Weknowthelatterifweknowthefunctional or Whatdoweknowabout ? (inallcircumstances).
(inallcircumstances).Weknowthisifwe
.Andweknowthisfunctionalifweknowtheinfinitesimalaction
Themultiplicativityofsuccessivepropagatorsimpliestheadditivityofactionsassociatedwithneighboringinfinitesimalpathsegments words,
and
.Inother
implies
Itfollowsthatthedifferential
ishomogeneous(ofdegree1)inthedifferentials
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Thispropertyof
makesitpossibletothinkoftheaction for weget:
asa(particlespecific)lengthassociatedwith ,andof
asdefininga(particlespecific)
spacetimegeometry.Bysubstituting
Somethingiswrong,isn'tit?Sincetherighthandsideisnowafinitequantity,weshouldn'tusethesymbol foundisthatthereisafunction ,whichgoesbythename Lagrangefunction,suchthat
forthelefthandside.Whatwehaveactually .
Geodesicequations
Consideraspacetimepath from correspondingpoint If then to Let'schange("vary")itinsuchawaythateverypoint excepttheendpoints,whichareheldfixed: and of getsshiftedbyaninfinitesimalamounttoa atboth and
Bythesametoken, Ingeneral,thechange stationaryat ), willcauseacorrespondingchangeintheaction: Iftheactiondoesnotchange(thatis,ifitis
then isa geodesicofthegeometrydefinedby
(Afunction
isstationaryatthosevaluesof atwhichitsvaluedoesnotchangeif changes
infinitesimally.Bythesametokenwecallafunctional
stationaryifitsvaluedoesnotchangeif changesinfinitesimally.)
Toobtainahandierwaytocharacterizegeodesics,webeginbyexpanding
Thisgivesus
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Nextweusetheproductruleforderivatives,
toreplacethelasttwotermsof(*),whichtakesusto
Thesecondintegralvanishesbecauseitisequaltothedifferencebetweenthevaluesoftheexpressioninbracketsattheendpoints and where and If isageodesic,thenthefirstintegralvanishes,too.Infact,inthiscase mustholdforallpossible(infinitesimal) variations and whenceitfollowsthatthe integrandofthefirstintegralvanishes.Thebottomlineisthatthegeodesicsdefinedby satisfythe geodesicequations
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Principleofleastaction
Ifanobjecttravelsfrom to ittravelsalongallpathsfrom to inthesamesenseinwhichanelectrongoesthroughbothslits.Thenhowisitthata bigthing(suchasaplanet,atennisball,oramosquito)appearstomovealongasinglewelldefinedpath? Thereareatleasttworeasons.Oneofthemisthatthebiggeranobjectis,theharderitistosatisfytheconditionsstipulatedbyRule Anotherreasonis thateveniftheseconditionsaresatisfied,thelikelihoodoffindinganobjectofmass whereaccordingtothelawsofclassicalphysicsitshouldnotbe, decreasesas increases. Toseethis,weneedtotakeaccountofthefactthatitisstrictlyimpossibletocheckwhetheranobjectthathastravelledfrom to hasdonesoalonga mathematicallyprecisepath Letusmakethehalfrealisticassumptionthatwhatwe cancheckiswhetheranobjecthastravelledfrom to withinaa narrowbundleofpathsthepathscontainedinanarrowtube Theprobabilityoffindingthatithas,istheabsolutesquareofthepathintegral whichsumsoverthepathscontainedin Letusassumethatthereisexactlyonepathfrom to forwhich isstationary:itslengthdoesnotchangeifwevarythepatheversoslightly,no matterhow.Inotherwords,weassumethatthereisexactlyonegeodesic.Let'scallit andlet'sassumeitliesin Nomatterhowrapidlythephase numberofpathsnear contributeto islarge. If isnotstationaryat alldependsonhowrapidlyitchangesundervariationof Ifitchangessufficientlyrapidly,thephasesassociatedwith comefrompathsintheinfinitesimalneighborhood changesundervariationofagenericpath itwillbestationaryat Thismeans,looslyspeaking,thatalarge
withalmostequalphases.Asaconsequence,themagnitudeofthesumofthecorrespondingphasefactors
pathsnear aremoreorlessequallydistributedovertheinterval comparativelysmallmagnitude.Inthelimit of Wehaveassumedthat liesin Ifitdoesnot,andif
sothatthecorrespondingphasefactorsadduptoacomplexnumberof
theonlysignificantcontributionsto
changessufficientlyrapidly,thephasesassociatedwithpathsnear anypathin sothatinthelimit therearenosignificantcontributionsto
are
moreorlessequallydistributedovertheinterval Forafreeparticle,asyouwillremember,
Fromthiswegatherthatthelikelihoodoffindingafreelymovingobjectwhereaccording
tothelawsofclassicalphysicsitshouldnotbe,decreasesasitsmassincreases.Sinceforsufficientlymassiveobjectsthecontributionstotheactiondueto influencesontheirmotionaresmallcomparedto thisisequallytrueofobjectsthatarenotmovingfreely. What,then, arethelawsofclassicalphysics? Theyarewhatthelawsofquantumphysicsdegenerateintointhelimit Inthislimit,asyouwillgatherfromtheabove,theprobabilityoffindingthat aparticlehastraveledwithinatube(howevernarrow)containingageodesic,is1,andtheprobabilityoffindingthataparticlehastraveledwithinatube (howeverwide)notcontainingageodesic,is0.Thuswemaystatethelawsofclassicalphysics(forasingle"pointmass",tobeginwith)bysayingthatit

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followsageodesicofthegeometrydefinedby Thisisreadilygeneralized.Thepropagatorforasystemwith degreesoffreedomsuchasan is particlesystemwith degreesoffreedom
where
and
arethesystem'srespectiveconfigurationsattheinitialtime andthefinaltime to
andtheintegralsumsoverallpathsinthesystem's
dimensionalconfigurationspacetimeleadingfrom thegeometrydefinedbytheactiondifferential differentials.
Inthiscase,too,thecorrespondingclassicalsystemfollowsageodesicof
whichnowdependson spatialcoordinates,onetimecoordinate,andthecorresponding
Thestatementthataclassicalsystemfollowsageodesicofthegeometrydefinedbyitsaction,isoftenreferredtoasthe principleofleastaction.Amore appropriatenameis principleofstationaryaction.
Energyandmomentum
Observethatif doesnotdependon (thatis, )then
isconstantalonggeodesics.(We'lldiscoverthereasonforthenegativesigninamoment.) Likewise,if doesnotdependon (thatis, )then
isconstantalonggeodesics. tellsushowmuchtheprojection of ontospacecontributesto ofasegment ofapath ontothetimeaxiscontributestotheactionof tellsushowmuchtheprojection If hasnoexplicittimedependence,thenequalintervalsofthetimeaxismakeequalcontributionsto
andif hasnoexplicitspacedependence,thenequalintervalsofanyspatialaxismakeequalcontributionsto Intheformercase,equaltime intervalsare physicallyequivalent :theyrepresent equaldurations.Inthelattercase,equalspaceintervalsare physicallyequivalent :theyrepresent equal distances.
Ifequalintervalsofthetimecoordinateorequalintervalsofaspacecoordinateare not physicallyequivalent,thisissoforeitheroftworeasons.Thefirstis
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Ifequalintervalsofthetimecoordinateorequalintervalsofaspacecoordinateare not physicallyequivalent,thisissoforeitheroftworeasons.Thefirstis thatnoninertialcoordinatesareused.Forifinertialcoordinatesareused,then everyfreelymovingpointmassmovesbyequalintervalsofthespace coordinatesinequalintervalsofthetimecoordinate,whichmeansthatequalcoordinateintervals arephysicallyequivalent.Thesecondisthatwhateveritis thatismovingisnotmoving freely:something,nomatterwhat,influencesitsmotion,nomatterhow.Thisisbecauseonewayofincorporatingeffectsonthe motionofanobjectintothemathematicalformalismofquantumphysics,istomakeinertialcoordinateintervalsphysically inequivalent ,byletting depend on and/or Thusforafreelymovingclassicalobject,both and areconstant.Sincetheconstancyof followsfromthephysicalequivalenceofequalintervalsof coordinatetime(a.k.a.the"homogeneity"oftime),andsince(classically)energyisdefinedasthequantitywhoseconstancyisimpliedbythehomogeneityof time, istheobject's energy. Bythesametoken,sincetheconstancyof followsfromthephysicalequivalenceofequalintervalsofanyspatialcoordinateaxis(a.k.a.the"homogeneity" ofspace),andsince(classically)momentumisdefinedasthequantitywhoseconstancyisimpliedbythehomogeneityofspace, istheobject's momentum. Letusdifferentiateaformerresult(http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/This_quantum_world/Feynman_route/From_quantum_to_classical#Action),
withrespectto
Thelefthandsidebecomes
whiletherighthandsidebecomesjust
Setting
andusingtheabovedefinitionsof
and
weobtain
isa4scalar.Since arethecomponentsofanother4vector. (Ifwehaddefined
arethecomponentsofa4vector,thelefthandside,
isa4scalarifandonlyif
withouttheminus,this4vectorwouldhavethecomponents
Intherestframe ofafreepointmass, and UsingtheLorentztransformations (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/This_quantum_world/Appendix/Relativity/Lorentz#The_actual_Lorentz_transformations),wefindthatthisequals
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where
isthevelocityofthepointmassin
Comparewiththeaboveframedequationtofindthatforafreepointmass,
Lorentzforcelaw
Toincorporateeffectsonthemotionofaparticle(regardlessoftheircauses),wemustmodifytheactiondifferential that
afreeparticleassociateswithapathsegment Indoingsowemusttakecarethatthemodified (i)remainshomogeneousinthedifferentials (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/This_quantum_world/Feynman_route/From_quantum_to_classical#Action)and(ii)remainsa4scalar.Themoststraightforward waytodothisistoaddatermthatisnotjusthomogeneousbutlinearinthecoordinatedifferentials:
Believeitornot,allclassicalelectromagneticeffects(asagainsttheircauses)areaccountedforbythisexpression.
isascalarfield(thatis,a
functionoftimeandspacecoordinatesthatisinvariantunderrotationsofthespacecoordinates), isa3vectorfield,and isa4vectorfield. Wecall and the scalarpotentialandthe vectorpotential,respectively.Theparticlespecificconstant istheelectriccharge,whichdetermineshow stronglyaparticleofagivenspeciesisaffectedbyinfluencesoftheelectromagnetickind. Ifapointmassisnotfree,theexpressionsattheendoftheprevioussectiongiveits kineticenergy form andits kineticmomentum Casting(*)intothe
andpluggingitintothedefinitions
weobtain
and
aretheparticle's potentialenergyand potentialmomentum,respectively.
Nowweplug(**)intothegeodesicequation
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Fortherighthandsideweobtain
whilethelefthandsideworksoutat
Twotermscancelout,andthefinalresultis
Asaclassicalobjecttravelsalongthesegment ofageodesic,itskineticmomentumchangesbythesumoftwoterms,onelinearinthetemporal component of andonelinearinthespatialcomponent Howmuch contributestothechangeof dependsonthe electricfield andhow much contributesdependsonthe magneticfield Thelastequationisusuallywrittenintheform
calledthe Lorentzforcelaw,andaccompaniedbythefollowingstory:thereisaphysicalentityknownastheelectromagneticfield,whichispresent everywhere,andwhichexertsonacharge anelectricforce andamagneticforce (Note:ThisformoftheLorentzforcelawholdsintheGaussiansystemofunits.IntheMKSAsystemofunitsthe ismissing.)
Whencetheclassicalstory?
Imagineasmallrectangleinspacetimewithcorners
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Let'scalculatetheelectromagneticcontributiontotheactionofthepathfrom
to
via
foraunitcharge(
)innaturalunits(
):
Next,thecontributiontotheactionofthepathfrom
to
via
Lookatthedifference:
Alternatively,youmaythinkof
astheelectromagneticcontributiontotheactionoftheloop
Let'srepeatthecalculationforasmallrectanglewithcorners
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Thustheelectromagneticcontributiontotheactionof thisloopequalsthefluxof Remembering(i)Stokes'theoremand(ii)thedefinitionof intermsof
throughtheloop.
wefindthat
In(other)words,themagneticfluxthroughaloop anysurfaceboundedbytheloop). Theeffectofacirculation
(orthroughanysurface boundedby
)equalsthecirculationof
aroundtheloop(oraround
aroundthe finiterectangle
istoincrease(ordecrease)theactionassociatedwith
thesegment relativetotheactionassociatedwiththesegment Iftheactionsofthetwosegmentsareequal,thenwe canexpectthepathofleastactionfrom to tobeastraightline.Ifonesegmenthasagreateractionthantheother,thenwecanexpectthepathof leastactionfrom to tocurveawayfromthesegmentwiththelargeraction.
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Comparethiswiththeclassicalstory,whichexplainsthecurvatureofthepathofachargedparticleinamagneticfieldbyinvokingaforcethatactsatright anglestoboththemagneticfieldandtheparticle'sdirectionofmotion.Thequantummechanicaltreatmentofthesameeffectoffersnosuchexplanation. Quantummechanicsinvokesnomechanismofanykind. Itsimplytellsusthatforasufficientlymassivechargetravelingfrom to theprobabilityof findingthatithasdonesowithinanybundleofpaths not containingtheactiongeodesicconnecting with isvirtually0. Muchthesamegoesfortheclassicalstoryaccordingtowhichthecurvatureofthepathofachargedparticleina spacetimeplaneisduetoaforcethatactsin thedirectionoftheelectricfield.(Observethatcurvatureinaspacetimeplaneisequivalenttoaccelerationordeceleration.Inparticular,curvatureina spacetimeplanecontainingthe axisisequivalenttoaccelerationinadirectionparalleltothe axis.)Inthiscasethecorrespondingcirculationisthatofthe 4vectorpotential aroundaspacetimeloop.
Schrdingeratlast
TheSchrdingerequationisnonrelativistic.Weobtainthenonrelativisticversionoftheelectromagneticactiondifferential,
byexpandingtherootandignoringallbutthefirsttwoterms:
Thisisobviouslyjustifiedif
whichdefinesthenonrelativisticregime.
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Writingthepotentialpartof as makesitclearthatinmostnonrelativisticsituationstheeffectsrepresentedbythe vectorpotential aresmallcomparedtothoserepresentedbythescalarpotential Ifweignorethem(orassumethat vanishes),andifweincludethe charge inthedefinitionof (orassumethat ),weobtain
fortheactionassociatedwithaspacetimepath Becausethefirsttermisthesameforallpathsfrom to ithasnoeffectonthe differencesbetweenthephasesoftheamplitudesassociatedwith differentpaths.Bydroppingitwechangeneithertheclassicalphenomena(inasmuchastheextremalpathremainsthesame)northequantumphenomena (inasmuchasinterferenceeffectsonlydependonthosedifferences).Thus
Wenowintroducethesocalled wavefunction
asthe amplitudeoffindingourparticleat iftheappropriatemeasurementismadeattime (attime )andthenat (attime ).Integratingover weobtainthe
accordingly,istheamplitudeoffindingtheparticlefirstat
amplitudeoffindingtheparticleat (attime ),providedthatRuleBapplies.Thewavefunctionthussatisfiestheequation
Weagainsimplifyourtaskbypretendingthatspaceisonedimensional.Wefurtherassumethat and differbyaninfinitesimalinterval Since is infinitesimal,thereisonlyonepathleadingfrom to Wecanthereforeforgetaboutthepathintegralexceptforanormalizationfactor implicitinthe integrationmeasure andmakethefollowingsubstitutions:
Thisgivesus
Weobtainafurthersimplificationifweintroduce sameforboth and )Wenowhavethat
andintegrateover insteadof
(Theintegration"boundaries"
and
arethe
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Sinceweareinterestedinthelimit
weexpandalltermstofirstorderin Towhichpowerin shouldweexpand?As increases,thephase )unless isofthesameorderas Inthislimit,higherordercontributionstotheintegral
increasesataninfiniterate(inthelimit cancelout.Thusthelefthandsideexpandsto
while
expandsto
Thefollowingintegralsneedtobeevaluated:
Theresultsare
PuttingHumptyDumptybacktogetheragainyields
Thefactorof
mustbethesameonbothsides,so
whichreducesHumptyDumptyto
Multiplyingby
andtakingthelimit
(whichistrivialsince hasdroppedout),wearriveattheSchrdingerequationforaparticlewithone :
degreeoffreedomsubjecttoapotential
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Trumpetsplease!Thetransitiontothreedimensionsisstraightforward:
TheSchrdingerequation:implicationsandapplications
InthischapterwetakealookatsomeoftheimplicationsoftheSchrdingerequation
Howfuzzypositionsgetfuzzier
Wewillcalculatetherateatwhichthefuzzinessofapositionprobabilitydistributionincreases,inconsequenceofthefuzzinessofthecorresponding momentum,whenthereisnocounterbalancingattraction(likethatbetweenthenucleusandtheelectroninatomichydrogen). Becauseitiseasytohandle,wechooseaGaussianfunction
whichhasabellshapedgraph.Itdefinesapositionprobabilitydistribution
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Ifwenormalizethisdistributionsothat
then
and
Wealsohavethat
theFouriertransformof
is
thisdefinesthemomentumprobabilitydistribution and Thefuzzinessofthepositionandofthemomentumofaparticleassociatedwith isthereforetheminimumallowedbythe"uncertainty"relation:
Nowrecallthat
where
ThishastheFouriertransform
andthisdefinesthepositionprobabilitydistribution
Comparisonwith
revealsthat
Therefore,
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Thegraphsbelowillustratehowrapidlythefuzzinessofaparticlethemassofanelectrongrows,whencomparedtoanobjectthemassofa moleculeor apeanut.Hereweseeonereason,thoughbynomeanstheonlyone,whyforallintentsandpurposes"oncesharp,alwayssharp"istrueofthepositionsof macroscopicobjects.
Above:anelectronwith Below:anelectronwith
nanometer.Inasecond, centimeter.
growstonearly60km.
growsonly16%inasecond.
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Next,a
moleculewith
nanometer.Inasecond,
growsto4.4centimeters.
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Finally,apeanut(2.8g)with
nanometer.
takesthepresentageoftheuniversetogrowto7.5micrometers.
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TimeindependentSchrdingerequation
IfthepotentialVdoesnotdependontime,thentheSchrdingerequationhassolutionsthatareproductsofatimeindependentfunction dependentphasefactor : andatime
Becausetheprobabilitydensity Plug into
isindependentoftime,thesesolutionsarecalled stationary.
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tofindthat
satisfiesthetimeindependentSchrdingerequation
Whyenergyisquantized
Limitingourselvesagaintoonespatialdimension,wewritethetimeindependentSchrdingerequationinthisform:
Sincethisequationcontainsnocomplexnumbersexceptpossibly noticethatif then ispositiveand
itself,ithasrealsolutions,andthesearetheonesinwhichweareinterested.Youwill curvesupwardabove anditssecondderivative then isnegativeand
hasthesamesignasitssecondderivative.Thismeansthatthegraphof
the axisanddownwardbelowit.Thusitcannotcrosstheaxis.Ontheotherhand,if
haveoppositesigns.Inthiscasethegraphof curvesdownwardabovethe axisandupwardbelowit.Asaresult,thegraphof keepscrossing theaxisitisawave.Moreover,thelargerthedifference thelargerthecurvatureofthegraphandthelargerthecurvature,thesmallerthe wavelength.Inparticleterms,thehigherthekineticenergy,thehigherthemomentum. Letusnowfindthesolutionsthatdescribeaparticle"trapped"inapotentialwellaboundstate.Considerthispotential:
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Observe,tobeginwith,thatat
and
where
theslopeof
doesnotchangesince
atthesepoints.Thistellsus ortothe
thattheprobabilityoffindingtheparticlecannotsuddenlydroptozeroatthesepoints.Itwillthereforebepossibletofindtheparticletotheleftof rightof whereclassicallyitcouldnotbe.(Aclassicalparticlewouldoscillatesbackandforthbetweenthesepoints.) Next,takeintoaccountthattheprobabilitydistributionsdefinedby axisasymptoticallyas Supposethatwehaveanormalizedsolutionforaparticularvalue mustbenormalizable.Forthegraphof
thismeansthatitmustapproachthe
Ifweincreaseordecreasethevalueof
thecurvatureofthegraphof
between and increasesordecreases.Asmallincreaseordecreasewon'tgiveusanothersolution: won'tvanishasymptoticallyforbothpositive andnegative Toobtainanothersolution,wemustincrease byjusttherightamounttoincreaseordecreasebyonethenumberofwavenodesbetween the"classical"turningpoints and andtomake againvanishasymptoticallyinbothdirections. Thebottomlineisthattheenergyofaboundparticleaparticle"trapped"inapotentialwellis quantized:onlycertainvalues ofthetimeindependentSchrdingerequation: yieldsolutions
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Aquantumbouncingball
Asaspecificexample,considerthefollowingpotential:
isthegravitationalaccelerationatthefloor.For
theSchrdingerequationasgivenintheprevioussectiontellsusthat Therequirementthat for ensuresthatour
unless Theonlysensiblesolutionfornegative istherefore perfectlyelastic,frictionlessquantumbouncerwon'tbefoundbelowthefloor.
Sinceapictureisworthmorethanathousandwords,wewon'tsolvethetimeindependentSchrdingerequationforthisparticularpotentialbutmerelyplotits firsteightsolutions:
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Wherewouldaclassicalbouncingballsubjecttothesamepotentialreverseitsdirectionofmotion?Observethecorrelationbetweenpositionandmomentum (wavenumber). Allofthesestatesarestationarytheprobabilityoffindingthequantumbouncerinanyparticularintervalofthe axisisindependentoftime.Sohowdowe getittomove? RecallthatanylinearcombinationofsolutionsoftheSchrdingerequationisanothersolution.Considerthislinearcombinationoftwostationarystates:
Assumingthatthecoefficients :
andthewavefunctions
arereal,wecalculatethemeanpositionofaparticleassociatedwith
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Thefirsttwointegralsarethe(timeindependent)meanpositionsofaparticleassociatedwith equals
and
respectively.Thelastterm
andthistellsusthattheparticle'smeanpositionoscillateswithfrequency firsttwoterms.
andamplitude
aboutthesumofthe
Visitthissite(http://www.uark.edu/misc/julio/bouncing_ball/bouncing_ball.html)towatchthetimedependenceoftheprobabilitydistributionassociatedwitha quantumbouncerthatisinitiallyassociatedwithaGaussiandistribution.
Atomichydrogen
WhiledeBroglie'stheoryof1923featuredcircularelectronwaves,Schrdinger's"wavemechanics"of1926featuresstandingwavesinthreedimensions. FindingthemmeansfindingthesolutionsofthetimeindependentSchrdingerequation
with
thepotentialenergyofaclassicalelectronatadistance
fromtheproton.(Onlywhenwecometotherelativistictheorywill
webeabletoshedthelastvestigeofclassicalthinking.)
Inusingthisequation,weignore(i)theinfluenceoftheelectronontheproton,whosemassissome1836timeslargerthanthatofheelectron,and(ii)the electron'sspin.Sincerelativisticandspineffectsonthemeasurablepropertiesofatomichydrogenarerathersmall,thisnonrelativisticapproximation neverthelessgivesexcellentresults. Forboundstatesthetotalenergy isnegative,andtheSchrdingerequationhasadiscretesetofsolutions.Asitturnsout,the"allowed"valuesof preciselythevaluesthatBohrobtainedin1913:

are
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However,foreach therearenow linearcombination
linearlyindependentsolutions.(If
areindependentsolutions,thennoneofthemcanbewrittenasa
oftheothers.)
Solutionswithdifferent correspondtodifferentenergies.Whatphysicaldifferencescorrespondtolinearlyindependentsolutionswiththesame ? Usingpolarcoordinates,onefindsthatallsolutionsforaparticularvalue combinationsofsolutionsthathavetheform arelinear
turnsouttobeanother quantizedvariable,for that with weshallseeinamoment. Justasthefactorizationof into Inaddition,
implies hasanupperbound,as
madeitpossibletoobtaina into whose"allowed"valuesare Therangeof thusare:
independentSchrdingerequation,sothefactorizationof Thiscontainsanotherrealparameter givenby overandabove
makesitpossibletoobtaina independentSchrdingerequation. with anintegersatisfying
possiblevaluesfor isboundedbytheinequality Thepossiblevaluesofthe principalquantumnumber the angularmomentumquantumnumber andthesocalled magneticquantumnumber
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Eachpossiblesetofquantumnumbers solutions(
definesauniquewavefunction
andtogetherthesemakeupacompletesetofboundstate
)oftheSchrdingerequationwith
Thefollowingimagesgiveanideaofthepositionprobabilitydistributionsofthe
firstthree states(nottoscale).Belowthemaretheprobabilitydensitiesplottedagainst Observethatthesestateshave nodes,allofwhich arespherical,thatis,surfacesofconstant (Thenodesofawaveinthreedimensionsaretwodimensionalsurfaces.Thenodesofa"probabilitywave"are thesurfacesatwhichthesignof changesand,consequently,theprobabilitydensity vanishes.)
Takeanotherlookattheseimages:
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Theletterss,p,d,fstandforl=0,1,2,3,respectively.(Beforethequantummechanicaloriginofatomicspectrallineswasunderstood,adistinctionwasmade between"sharp,""principal,""diffuse,"and"fundamental"lines.Thesetermsweresubsequentlyfoundtocorrespondtothefirstfourvaluesthat cantake. From onwardthelabelsfollowsthealphabet:f,g,h...)Observethatthesestatesdisplaybothsphericalandconicalnodes,thelatterbeingsurfacesof constant (The"conical"nodewith isahorizontalplane.)Thesestates,too,haveatotalof nodes, ofwhichareconical. Becausethe"waviness"in iscontainedinaphasefactor replace byitsrealpart itdoesnotshowupinrepresentationsof Tomakeitvisible,itiscustomaryto
asinthefollowingimages,whichdo not representprobabilitydistributions.
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Thetotalnumberofnodesisagain conicalnodes.
thetotalnumberofnonsphericalnodesisagain butnowthereare
planenodescontainingthe axisand
Whatissospecialaboutthe axis?Absolutelynothing,forthewavefunctions completesetofboundstatesolutions.Thismeansthateverywavefunction versa.
whicharedefinedwithrespecttoadifferentaxis,makeupanother canbewrittenasalinearcombinationofthefunctions andvice
Observablesandoperators
Rememberthemeanvalues
Asnotedalready,ifwedefinetheoperators ("multiplywith ")and thenwecanwrite
Bythesametoken,
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Whichobservableisassociatedwiththedifferentialoperator constant,and
?If and areconstant(asthepartialderivativewithrespectto requires),then is
Giventhat
and
thisworksoutat
or
Since,classically,orbitalangularmomentumisgivenby astheoperator
sothat
itseemsobviousthatweshouldconsider
associatedwiththe componentoftheatom'sangularmomentum.
Yetweneedtobewaryofbasingquantummechanicaldefinitionsonclassicalones.Herearethequantummechanicaldefinitions: Considerthewavefunction shortfor ofaclosedsystem with degreesoffreedom.Supposethattheprobabilitydistribution (whichis
)isinvariantundertranslationsintime:waitingforanyamountoftime makesnodifferencetoit:
Thenthetimedependenceof
isconfinedtoaphasefactor
Furthersupposethatthetimecoordinate andthespacecoordinates arehomogeneousequalintervalsarephysicallyequivalent.Since isclosed, thephasefactor cannotthendependon anditsphasecanatmostlinearlydependon waitingfor shouldhavethesameeffectastwice waitingfor Inotherwords,multiplyingthewavefunctionby shouldhavesameeffectasmultiplyingittwiceby :
Thus
Sotheexistenceofaconstant("conserved")quantity or(inconventionalunits)
isimpliedforaclosedsystem,andthisiswhatwemeanbythe energyof
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Sotheexistenceofaconstant("conserved")quantity or(inconventionalunits) thesystem. Nowsupposethat
isimpliedforaclosedsystem,andthisiswhatwemeanbythe energyof
isinvariantundertranslationsinthedirectionofoneofthespatialcoordinates
say
Thenthedependenceof
on
isconfinedtoaphasefactor
Andsupposeagainthatthetimecoordinates and arehomogeneous.Since isclosed,thephasefactor cannotthendependon or anditsphasecanatmostlinearlydependon :translating by shouldhavethesameeffectastwicetranslatingitby Inotherwords,multiplyingthe wavefunctionby shouldhavesameeffectasmultiplyingittwiceby :
Thus
Sotheexistenceofaconstant("conserved")quantity componentofthesystem's momentum.
or(inconventionalunits)
isimpliedforaclosedsystem,andthisiswhatwemeanbythej
Yougetthepicture.Moreover,thespatialcoordiatesmightaswellbethesphericalcoordinates aboutthe axis,andifthelongitudinalcoordinate ishomogeneous,then
If
isinvariantunderrotations
Inthiscasewecalltheconservedquantitythe componentofthesystem's angularmomentum.
Nowsupposethat
isanobservable,that
isthecorrespondingoperator,andthat
satisfies
Wesaythat of for
isan eigenfunctionor eigenstateoftheoperator Weobviouslyhavethat
andthatithasthe eigenvalue
Let'scalculatethemeanandthestandarddeviation
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Hence
since intervalcontaining
Forasystemassociatedwith is1.Butwehavethat
isdispersionfree.Hencetheprobabilityoffindingthatthevalueof
liesinan
So,indeed,
istheoperatorassociatedwiththe componentoftheatom'sangularmomentum.
Observethattheeigenfunctionsofanyoftheseoperatorsareassociatedwithsystemsforwhichthecorrespondingobservableis"sharp":thestandard deviationmeasuringitsfuzzinessvanishes. Forobviousreasonswealsohave
Ifwedefinethe commutator
thensayingthattheoperators
and
commuteisthesameassayingthattheircommutator
vanishes.Laterwewillprovethattwoobservablesare compatible(canbesimultaneouslymeasured)ifandonlyiftheiroperators commute.
Exercise:Showthat
Onesimilarlyfindsthat
and
Theupshot:differentcomponentsofasystem'sangularmomentumare incompatible.
Exercise:Usingtheabovecommutators,showthattheoperator
commuteswith
and
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Beyondhydrogen:thePeriodicTable
Ifweagainassumethatthenucleusisfixedatthecenterandignorerelativisticandspineffects,thenthestationarystatesofheliumarethesolutionsofthe followingequation:
Thewavefunctionnowdependsonsixcoordinates,andthepotentialenergy
ismadeupofthreeterms.
and
areassociatedwiththerespectivedistancesoftheelectronsfromthenucleus,and isassociatedwiththedistancebetweentheelectrons.Thinkof energyassociatedwiththetwoelectronswouldhaveifthey wereat and respectively. andthesecondinaregion asthevaluethepotential
Whyaretherenoseparatewavefunctionsforthetwoelectrons?Thejointprobabilityoffindingthefirstelectroninaregion (relativetothenucleus)isgivenby
Iftheprobabilityoffindingthefirstelectronin wereindependentofthewhereaboutsofthesecondelectron,thenwecouldassigntoitawavefunction andiftheprobabilityoffindingthesecondelectronin wereindependentofthewhereaboutsofthefirstelectron,wecouldassigntoitawave function productof Inthiscase wouldbegivenbytheproduct and ofthetwowavefunctions,and wouldbethe
Butingeneral,andespeciallyinsideaheliumatom,thepositional
probabilitydistributionforthefirstelectronisconditionalonthewhereaboutsofthesecondelectron,andviceversa,giventhatthetwoelectronsrepeleach other(tousethelanguageofclassicalphysics). Forthelowestenergylevels,theaboveequationhasbeensolvedbynumericalmethods.Withthreeormoreelectronsitishopelesstolookforexactsolutions ofthecorrespondingSchrdingerequation.Nevertheless,thePeriodicTableandmanypropertiesofthechemicalelementscanbeunderstoodbyusingthe followingapproximatetheory. First,wedisregardthedetailsoftheinteractionsbetweentheelectrons.Next,sincethechemicalpropertiesofatomsdependontheiroutermostelectrons,we considereachoftheseatomssubjecttoapotentialthatisdueto(i)thenucleusand(ii)acontinuous,sphericallysymmetric,chargedistributiondoingdutyfor theotherelectrons.Weagainneglectspineffects except thatwetakeaccountofthePauliexclusionprinciple,accordingtowhichtheprobabilityoffindingtwo
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electrons(moregenerally,twofermions)havingexactlythesamepropertiesis0.Thustwoelectronscanbeassociatedwithexactlythesamewavefunction providedthattheirspinstatesdifferinthefollowingway:wheneverthespinsofthetwoelectronsaremeasuredwithrespecttoagivenaxis,theoutcomesare perfectlyanticorrelatedonewillbe"up"andtheotherwillbe"down".Sincethereareonlytwopossibleoutcomes,athirdelectroncannotbeassociatedwith thesamewavefunction. Thisapproximatetheoryyieldsstationarywavefunctions calledorbitalsforindividualelectrons.Thesearequitesimilartothestationarywave functionsoneobtainsforthesingleelectronofhydrogen,exceptthattheirdependenceontheradialcoordinateismodifiedbythenegativechargedistribution representingtheremainingelectrons.Asaconsequenceofthismodification,theenergiesassociatedwithorbitalswiththesamequantumnumber but differentquantumnumbers arenolongerequal.Foranygiven obitalswithhigher yieldalargermeandistancebetweentheelectronandthe nucleus,andthelargerthisdistance,themorethenegativechargeoftheremainingelectronsscreensthepositivechargeofthenucleus.Asaresult,an electronwithhigher islessstronglybound(giventhesame ),soitsionizationenergyislower. Chemistsgrouporbitalsintoshellsaccordingtotheirprincipalquantumnumber.Aswehaveseen,the thshellcan"accommodate"upto electrons.Heliumhasthefirstshellcompletely"filled"andthesecondshell"empty."Becausetheheliumnucleushastwicethechargeofthehydrogen nucleus,thetwoelectronsare,onaverage,muchnearerthenucleusthanthesingleelectronofhydrogen.Theionizationenergyofheliumisthereforemuch larger,2372.3J/molascomparedto1312.0J/molforhydrogen.Ontheotherhand,ifyoutriedtoaddanelectrontocreateanegativeheliumion,itwould havetogointothesecondshell,whichisalmostcompletelyscreenedfromthenucleusbytheelectronsinthefirstshell.Heliumisthereforeneitherproneto giveupanelectronnotabletoholdanextraelectron.Itischemicallyinert,asareallelementsintherightmostcolumnofthePeriodicTable. InthesecondrowofthePeriodicTablethesecondshellgetsfilled.Sincetheenergiesofthe2porbitalsarehigherthanthatofthe2sorbital,thelattergets "filled"first.Witheachaddedelectron(andproton!)theentireelectrondistributiongetspulledin,andtheionizationenergygoesup,from520.2J/molfor lithium(atomicnumberZ=3)to2080.8J/molforneon(Z=10).Whilelithiumreadilypartswithanelectron,fluorine(Z=9)withasingleempty"slot"inthe secondshellispronetograbone.Botharethereforequiteactivechemically.Theprogressionfromsodium(Z=11)toargon(Z=18)parallelsthatfromlithiumto neon. Thereisanoteworthypeculiarityinthecorrespondingsequencesofionizationenergies:Theionizationenergyofoxygen(Z=8,1313.9J/mol)islowerthanthat ofnitrogen(Z=7,1402.3J/mol),andthatofsulfur(Z=16,999.6J/mol)islowerthanthatofphosphorus(Z=15,1011.8J/mol).Tounderstandwhythisisso,we musttakeaccountofcertaindetailsoftheinterelectronicforcesthatwehavesofarignored. Supposethatoneofthetwo2pelectronsofcarbon(Z=6)goesintothe orbitalwithrespecttothe axis.Wherewilltheother2pelectrongo?Itwillgo intoanyvacantorbitalthatminimizestherepulsionbetweenthetwoelectrons,bymaximizingtheirmeandistance.Thisisneitheroftheorbitalswith withrespecttothe axisbutanorbitalwith withrespecttosomeaxisperpendiculartothe axis.Ifwecallthisthe axis,thenthethird2pelectron ofnitrogengoesintotheorbitalwith relativeto axis.Thefourth2pelectronofoxygenthenhasnochoicebuttogowithoppositespinintoan alreadyoccupied2porbital.Thisraisesitsenergysignificantlyandaccountsforthedropinionizationfromnitrogentooxygen. Bythetimethe3porbitalsare"filled,"theenergiesofthe3dstatesarepushedupsohigh(asaresultofscreening)thatthe4sstateisenergeticallylower. The"fillingup"ofthe3dorbitalsthereforebeginsonlyafterthe4sorbitalsare"occupied,"withscandium(Z=21). Thuseventhissimplifiedandapproximateversionofthequantumtheoryofatomshasthepowertopredictthequalitativeandmanyofthequantitative featuresofthePeriodTable.
Probabilityflux
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Thetimerateofchangeoftheprobabilitydensity
(atafixedlocation )isgivenby
WiththehelpoftheSchrdingerequationanditscomplexconjugate,
oneobtains
Thetermscontaining
cancelout,soweareleftwith
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Next,wecalculatethedivergenceof
Theupshot:
Integratedoveraspatialregion
withunchangingboundary
AccordingtoGauss'slaw,theoutwardfluxof through
equalstheintegralofthedivergenceof over
Wethushavethat
If isthecontinuousdensityofsomekindofstuff(stuffperunitvolume)and isitsflux(stuffperunitareaperunittime),thenonthelefthandsidewehave therateatwhichthestuffinside increases,andontherighthandsidewehavetherateatwhichstuffentersthroughthesurfaceof Soifsomestuff movesfromplaceAtoplaceB,itcrossestheboundaryofanyregionthatcontainseitherAorB.Thisiswhytheframedequationisknownasacontinuity equation.
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Inthequantumworld,however,thereisnosuchthingascontinuouslydistributedand/orcontinuouslymovingstuff. and respectively,areadensity (somethingperunitvolume)andaflux(somethingperunitareaperunittime)onlyinaformalsense.If isthewavefunctionassociatedwithaparticle,then theintegral givestheprobabilityoffindingtheparticlein iftheappropriatemeasurementismade,andtheframedequation
tellsusthis:iftheprobabilityoffindingtheparticleinside asafunctionofthetimeatwhichthemeasurementismade,increases,thentheprobabilityof findingtheparticleoutside asafunctionofthesametime,decreasesbythesameamount.(Muchthesameholdsif isassociatedwithasystemhaving degreesoffreedomand isaregionofthesystem'sconfigurationspace.)Thisissometimesexpressedbysayingthat"probabilityis(locally)conserved." Whenyouhearthis,thenrememberthattheprobabilityforsomethingtohappeninagivenplaceatagiventimeisn'tanythingthatissituatedatthatplaceor thatexistsatthattime.
Entanglement(apreview)
Bell'stheorem:thesimplestversion
Quantummechanicspermitsustocreatethefollowingscenario. Pairsofparticlesarelaunchedinoppositedirections. Eachparticleissubjectedtooneofthreepossiblemeasurements(1, 2,or 3). Eachtimethetwomeasurementsarechosenatrandom. Eachmeasurementhastwopossibleresults,indicatedbyaredorgreenlight. Hereiswhatwefind: Ifbothparticlesaresubjectedtothesamemeasurement,identicalresultsareneverobtained. Thetwosequencesofrecordedoutcomesarecompletelyrandom.Inparticular,halfofthetimebothlightsarethesamecolor.
Ifthisdoesn'tbotheryou,thenpleaseexplainhowitisthatthecolorsdifferwheneveridenticalmeasurementsareperformed! Theobviousexplanationwouldbethateachparticlearriveswithan"instructionset"somepropertythatpredeterminestheoutcomeofeverypossible measurement.Let'sseewhatthisentails. Eachparticlearriveswithoneofthefollowing23=8instructionsets:

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RRR, RRG, RGR, GRR, RGG, GRG, GGR,or GGG. (Ifaparticlearriveswith,say, RGG,thentheapparatusflashesredifitissetto 1andgreenifitissetto 2or 3.)Inordertoexplainwhytheoutcomesdiffer wheneverbothparticlesaresubjectedtothesamemeasurement,wehavetoassumethatparticleslaunchedtogetherarrivewithoppositeinstructionsets.If onecarriestheinstruction(orarriveswiththepropertydenotedby) RRG,thentheothercarriestheinstruction GGR. Supposethattheinstructionsetsare RRGand GGR.Inthiscaseweobservedifferentcolorswiththefollowingfiveofthe32=9possiblecombinationsof apparatussettings: 11, 22, 33, 12,and 21, andweobserveequalcolorswiththefollowingfour: 13, 23, 31,and 32. Becausethesettingsarechosenatrandom,thisparticularpairofinstructionsetsthusresultsindifferentcolors5/9ofthetime.Thesameistruefortheother pairsofinstructionsets except thepair RRR, GGG.Ifthetwoparticlescarrytheserespectiveinstructionsets,weseedifferentcolors everytime.Itfollowsthat weseedifferentcolors atleast 5/9ofthetime. Butdifferentcolorsareobservedhalfofthetime!Inrealitytheprobabilityofobservingdifferentcolorsis1/2.Conclusion:thestatisticalpredictionsofquantum mechanicscannotbeexplainedwiththehelpofinstructionsets.Inotherwords,thesemeasurementsdonotreveal preexistent properties.They createthe propertiesthepossessionofwhichtheyindicate. Thenhowisitthatthecolorsdifferwheneveridenticalmeasurementsaremade?Howdoesoneapparatus"know"whichmeasurementisperformedandwhich outcomeisobtained bytheotherapparatus? Wheneverthejointprobability p(A,B)oftherespectiveoutcomes Aand Boftwomeasurementsdoesnotequaltheproduct p(A)p(B)oftheindividual probabilities,theoutcomesortheirprobabilitiesaresaidtobe correlated.Withequalapparatussettingswehave p(R,R)=p(G,G)=0,andthisobviously differsfromtheproducts p(R)p(R)and p(G)p(G),whichequal Whatkindofmechanismisresponsibleforthecorrelationsbetweenthe measurementoutcomes? Youunderstandthisasmuchasanybodyelse! Theconclusionthatweseedifferentcolorsatleast5/9ofthetimeis Bell'stheorem(or Bell'sinequality)forthisparticularsetup.Thefactthattheuniverse violatesthelogicofBell'sTheoremisevidencethatparticlesdonotcarryinstructionsetsembeddedwithinthemandinsteadhaveinstantaneousknowledgeof otherparticlesatagreatdistance.HereisacommentbyadistinguishedPrincetonphysicistasquotedbyDavidMermin[1] Anybodywho'snotbotheredbyBell'stheoremhastohaverocksinhishead. AndhereiswhyEinsteinwasn'thappywithquantummechanics: Icannotseriouslybelieveinitbecauseitcannotbereconciledwiththeideathatphysicsshouldrepresentarealityintimeandspace,freefrom spookyactionsatadistance. [2]
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Sadly,Einstein(18791955)didnotknowBell'stheoremof1964.Weknownowthat theremustbeamechanismwherebythesettingofonemeasurementdevicecaninfluencethereadingofanotherinstrument,howeverremote.
[3]
Spookyactionsatadistanceareheretostay!
1. N.DavidMermin,"IstheMoontherewhennobodylooks?Realityandthequantumtheory," PhysicsToday,April1985.TheversionofBell'stheorem discussedinthissectionfirstappearedinthisarticle. 2. AlbertEinstein, TheBornEinsteinLetters,withcommentsbyMaxBorn(NewYork:Walker,1971). 3. JohnS.Bell,"OntheEinsteinPodolskyRosenparadox," Physics1,pp.195200,1964.
Aquantumgame
Herearetherules: [1] Twoteamsplayagainsteachother:Andy,Bob,andCharles(the"players")versusthe"interrogators". Eachplayerisaskedeither"Whatisthevalueof X ?"or"Whatisthevalueof Y ?" Onlytwoanswersareallowed:+1or1. Eithereachplayerisaskedthe X question,oroneplayerisaskedthe X questionandthetwootherplayersareaskedthe Y question. Theplayerswiniftheproductoftheiranswersis1incaseonly X questionsareasked,andiftheproductoftheiranswersis+1incase Y questions areasked.Otherwisetheylose. Theplayersarenotallowedtocommunicatewitheachotheroncethequestionsareasked.Beforethat,theyarepermittedtoworkoutastrategy. Isthereafailsafestrategy?Cantheymakesurethattheywillwin?Stoptoponderthequestion. Letustrypreagreedanswers,whichwewillcall X A, X B, X Cand Y A, Y B, Y C.Thewinningcombinationssatisfythefollowingequations:
Considerthefirstthreeequations.Theproductoftheirrighthandsidesequals+1.Theproductoftheirlefthandsidesequals X AX BX C,implyingthat X AX BX C=1.(Rememberthatthepossiblevaluesare1.)Butif X AX BX C=1,thenthefourthequation X AX BX C=1obviouslycannotbesatisfied. Thebottomline:Thereisnofailsafestrategywithpreagreedanswers.

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1. LevVaidman,"VariationsonthethemeoftheGreenbergerHorneZeilingerproof," FoundationsofPhysics29,pp.61530,1999.
TheexperimentofGreenberger,Horne,andZeilinger
Andyetthereisafailsafestrategy. [1] Heregoes: Andy,Bob,andCharlespreparethreeparticles(forinstance,electrons)inaparticularway.Asaresult,theyareabletopredicttheprobabilitiesofthe possibleoutcomesofanyspinmeasurementtowhichthethreeparticlesmaysubsequentlybesubjected.Inprincipletheseprobabilitiesdonotdepend onhowfartheparticlesareapart. Eachplayertakesoneparticlewithhim. Whoeverisaskedthe X questionmeasuresthe xcomponentofthespinofhisparticleandanswerswithhisoutcome,andwhoeverisaskedthe Y questionmeasuresthe ycomponentofthespinofhisparticleandanswerslikewise.(Allyouneedtoknowatthispointaboutthespinofaparticleis thatitscomponentwithrespecttoanyoneaxiscanbemeasured,andthatforthetypeofparticleusedbytheplayerstherearetwopossibleoutcomes, namely+1and1. Proceedinginthisway,theteamofplayersissuretowineverytime. Isitpossibleforthe xand ycomponentsofthespinsofthethreeparticlestobeinpossessionofvaluesbeforetheirvaluesareactuallymeasured? Supposethatthe ycomponentsofthethreespinshavebeenmeasured.Thethreeequations
oftheprevioussectiontelluswhatwewouldhavefoundifthe xcomponentofanyoneofthethreeparticleshadbeenmeasuredinsteadofthe ycomponent. Ifweassumethatthe xcomponentsareinpossessionofvalueseventhoughtheyare not measured,thentheirvaluescanbeinferredfromthemeasured valuesofthethree ycomponents. Trytofillinthefollowingtableinsuchawaythat eachcellcontainseither+1or1, theproductofthethreeXvaluesequals1,and theproductofeverypairofYvaluesequalstheremainingXvalue. Canitbedone?
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A X Y
Theanswerisnegative,forthesamereasonthatthefourequations
cannotallbesatisfied.Justastherecanbenostrategywithpreagreedanswers,therecanbenopreexistentvalues.Weseemtohavenochoicebutto concludethatthesespincomponentsareinpossessionofvalues onlyif (andonlywhen)theyareactuallymeasured. Anytwooutcomessufficetopredictathirdoutcome.Iftwo xcomponentsaremeasured,thethird xcomponentcanbepredicted,iftwo ycomponentsare measured,the xcomponentofthethirdspincanbepredicted,andifone xandone ycomponentaremeasurement,the ycomponentofthethirdspincanbe predicted.Howcanweunderstandthisgiventhat thevaluesofthespincomponentsarecreatedasandwhentheyaremeasured, therelativetimesofthemeasurementsareirrelevant, inprinciplethethreeparticlescanbemillionsofmilesapart. Howdoesthethirdspin"know"whichcomponentsoftheotherspinsaremeasuredandwhichoutcomesareobtained?Whatmechanismcorrelatesthe outcomes? Youunderstandthisasmuchasanybodyelse!
1. D.M.Greenberger,M.A.Horne,andA.Zeilinger,"GoingbeyondBell'stheorem,"in Bell'stheorem,QuantumTheory,andConceptionofthe Universe,editedbyM.Kafatos(Dordrecht:KluwerAcademic,1989),pp.6972.
Authors
Listauthorshere.
Appendix
Probability
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BasicConcepts
Probabilityisanumericalmeasureoflikelihood.Ifaneventhasaprobabilityequalto1(or100%),thenitiscertaintooccur.Ifithasaprobabilityequalto0, thenitwilldefinitelynotoccur.Andifithasaprobabilityequalto1/2(or50%),thenitisaslikelyasnottooccur. Youwillknowthattossingafaircoinhasprobability1/2toyieldheads,andthatcastingafairdiehasprobability1/6toyielda1.Howdoweknowthis? Thereisaprincipleknownasthe principleofindifference,whichstates:iftherearenmutuallyexclusiveandjointlyexhaustivepossibilities,andif,asfaraswe know,therearenodifferencesbetweenthenpossibilitiesapartfromtheirnames(suchas"heads"or"tails"),theneachpossibilityshouldbeassigneda probabilityequalto1/n.(Mutuallyexclusive:onlyonepossibilitycanberealizedinasingletrial. Jointlyexhaustive:atleastonepossibilityisrealizedinasingle trial. Mutuallyexclusiveandjointlyexhaustive:exactlyonypossibilityisrealizedinasingletrial.) Sincethisprincipleappealstowhatwe know,itconcerns epistemicprobabilities(a.k.a. subjectiveprobabilities)or degreesofbelief .Ifyouarecertainofthe truthofaproposition,thenyouassigntoitaprobabilityequalto1.Ifyouarecertainthatapropositionisfalse,thenyouassigntoitaprobabilityequalto0. Andifyouhavenoinformationthatmakesyoubelievethatthetruthofapropositionismorelikely(orlesslikely)thanitsfalsity,thenyouassigntoit probability1/2.Subjectiveprobabilitiesarethereforealsoknownas ignoranceprobabilities:ifyouareignorantofanydifferencesbetweenthepossibilities,you assigntothemequalprobabilities. Ifweassignprobability1toapropositionbecausewe believethatitistrue,weassignasubjectiveprobability,andifweassignprobability1toanevent becauseit iscertainthatitwilloccur,weassignanobjectiveprobability.Untiltheadventofquantummechanics,theonlyobjectiveprobabilitiesknownwere relativefrequencies. Theadvantageofthefrequentistdefinitionofprobabilityisthatitallowsustomeasureprobabilities,atleastapproximately.Thetroublewithitisthatitrefers to ensembles.Youcan'tmeasuretheprobabilityofheadsbytossingasinglecoin.Yougetbetterandbetterapproximationstotheprobabilityofheadsby tossingalargerandlargernumber ofcoinsanddividingthenumber ofheadsby Theexactprobabilityofheadsisthelimit
Themeaningofthisformulaisthatforanypositivenumber howeversmall,youcanfinda(sufficientlylargebutfinite)number
suchthat
Theprobabilitythat eventsfromamutuallyexclusiveandjointlyexhaustivesetof possibleeventshappenisthesumoftheprobabilitiesofthe events.Suppose,forexample,youwinifyoucasteithera1ora6.Theprobabilityofwinningis
Infrequentistterms,thisisvirtuallyselfevident. approximates
approximates
approximates
and
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Theprobabilitythattwo independent eventshappenistheproductoftheprobabilitiesoftheindividualevents.Suppose,forexample,youcasttwodiceand youwinifthetotalis12.Then
Bytheprincipleofindifference,therearenow Itisimportanttorememberthatthe jointprobability and
equiprobablepossibilities,andcastingatotalof12withtwodiceisoneofthem. oftwoevents equalstheproductoftheindividualprobabilities
onlyif thetwoeventsareindependent,meaningthattheprobabilityofonedoesnotdependonwhetherornottheotherhappens.Interms
ofpropositions:theprobabilitythattheconjunction istrueistheprobabilitythat istruetimestheprobabilitythat istrue onlyif the probabilitythateitherpropositionistruedoesnotdependonwhethertheotheristrueorfalse.Ignoringthiscanhavethemosttragicconsequences. Thegeneralruleforthejointprobabilityoftwoeventsis
isa conditionalprobability:theprobabilityof Toseethis,let
giventhat and happenoraretrue. But approximates
bethenumberoftrialsinwhichboth approximates and
approximates
Animmediateconsequenceofthisis Bayes'theorem:
Thefollowingisjustasreadilyestablished:
where happensoristruewhenever shouldbeobvious.
doesnothappenorisfalse.Thegeneralizationto
mutuallyexclusiveandjointlyexhaustivepossibilities
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Givena randomvariable,whichisaset
ofrandomnumbers,wemaywanttoknowthearithmeticmean
aswellasthe standarddeviation,whichistherootmeansquaredeviationfromthearithmeticmean,
Thestandarddeviationisanimportantmeasureof statisticaldispersion. Given possiblemeasurementoutcomes wanttoknowthe expectedvalueof definedby withprobabilities wehavea probabilitydistribution andwemay
aswellasthecorrespondingstandarddeviation
whichisahandymeasureofthefuzzinessof
Wehavedefinedprobabilityasanumericalmeasureoflikelihood.Sowhatislikelihood?Whatisprobabilityapartfrombeinganumericalmeasure?The frequentistdefinitioncoverssomecases,theepistemicdefinitioncoversothers,butwhichdefinitionwouldcoverallcases?Itseemsthatprobabilityisoneof thoseconceptsthatareintuitivelymeaningfultous,butjustliketimeortheexperienceofpurplecannotbeexplainedintermsofotherconcepts.
SomeProblems
Problem1(MontyHall).Aplayerinagameshowisgiventhechoiceofthreedoors.BehindonedooristheGrandPrize(say,acar)behindtheothertwo doorsareboobyprizes(say,goats).Theplayerpicksadoor,andtheshowhostpeeksbehindthedoorsandopensoneoftheremainingdoors.Thereisa boobyprizebehindthedoorheopened.Thehostthenofferstheplayereithertostaywiththedoorthatwaschosenatthebeginning,ortoswitchtotheother closeddoor.Whatgivestheplayerthebetterchanceofwinning:toswitchdoorsortostaywiththeoriginalchoice?Orarethechancesequal? Problem2.ImagineyoutossacoinsuccessivelyandwaittillthefirsttimethepatternHTTappears.Forexample,ifthesequenceoftosseswas
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HHTHHTHHTTHHTTTHTH thenthepatternHTTwouldappearafterthe10thtoss.LetA(HTT)betheaveragenumberoftossesuntilHTToccurs,andletA(HTH)betheaveragenumber oftossesuntilHTHoccurs.Whichofthefollowingistrue? (a)A(HTH)<(HTT),(b)A(HTH)=A(HTT),or(c)A(HTH)>A(HTT). Problem3.Imagineatestforacertaindisease(say,HIV)thatis99%accurate.Andsupposeapersonpickedatrandomtestspositive.Whatistheprobability thatthepersonactuallyhasthedisease? Solutions Problem1.Let betheprobabilitythatthecarisbehinddoor1, thatthehostopensdoor3giventhatthecarisbehinddoor1.Wehave theprobabilitythatthehostopensdoor3,and theprobability
aswellas
Ifthefirstchoiceisdoor1,then
and
Hence
andthus
Inwords:Iftheplayer'sfirstchoiceisdoor1andthehostopensdoor3,thentheprobabilitythatthecarisbehinddoor2is whereastheprobabilitythat itisbehinddoor1is12/3=1/3.Aquickerwaytoseethatswitching doublesthechancesofwinningistocomparethisgamewithanotherone,inwhichthe showhostoffersthechoiceofeitheropeningtheoriginallychosendoororopening bothotherdoors(andwinningregardlessofwhich,ifany,hasthecar). Note:Thisresultdependsontheshowhost*deliberately*openingonlyadoorwithagoatbehindit.Ifshedoesn'tknowordoesn'tcare(!)whichdoorthe carisbehind,andopensaremainingdooratrandom,then1/3oftheoutcomesthatwereinitiallypossiblehavebeenremovedbyherhavingopenedadoor withagoat.Inthiscasetheplayergainsnoadvantage(ordisadvantage)byswitching.Sotheanswerdependsontherulesofthegame,notjustthesequence ofevents.Ofcoursetheplayermaynotknowwhatthe'rules'areinthisrespect,inwhichcaseheshouldstillswitchdoorsbecausetherecanbeno disadvantageindoingso.
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Problem2.TheaveragenumberoftossesuntilHTToccurs,A(HTT),equals8,whereasA(HTH)=10.Toseewhythelatterisgreater,imagineyouhave tossedHT.IfyouarelookingforHTHandthenexttossgivesyouHTT,thenyournextchancetoseeHTHisafteratotalof6tosses,whereasifyouare lookingforHTTandthenexttossgivesyouHTH,thenyournextchancetoseeHTTisafteratotalof5tosses. Problem3.Theanswerdependsonhowrarethediseaseis.Supposethatonein10,000hasit.Thismeans100inamillion.Ifamillionaretested,therewill be99truepositivesandonefalsenegative.99%oftheremaining999,900thatis,989,901willyieldtruenegativesand1%thatis,9,999willyield falsepositives.Theprobabilitythatarandomlypickedpersontestingpositiveactuallyhasthediseaseisthenumberoftruepositivesdividedbythenumberof positives,whichinthisparticularexampleis99/(9999+99)=0.0098lessthan1%!
Moral
Beitscientificdataorevidenceincourtthereareusuallycompetingexplanations,andusuallyeachexplanationhasalikelybitandanunlikelybit.For example,havingthediseaseisunlikely,butthetestislikelytobecorrectnothavingthediseaseislikely,butafalsetestresultisunlikely.Youcanseethe importanceofaccurateassessmentsofthelikelihoodofcompetingexplanations,andifyouhavetriedtheproblems,youhaveseenthatwearen'tverygoodat suchassessments.
Mathematicaltools
Elementsofcalculus
Adefiniteintegral Imagineanobject thatisfreetomoveinonedimensionsay,alongthe axis.Likeeveryphysicalobject,ithasamoreorlessfuzzyposition(relativeto whateverreferenceobjectwechoose).Forthepurposeofdescribingitsfuzzyposition,quantummechanicsprovidesuswithaprobabilitydensity This dependsonactualmeasurementoutcomes,anditallowsustocalculatetheprobabilityoffindingtheparticleinanygivenintervalofthe axis,providedthat anappropriatemeasurementismade.(Rememberourmantra:themathematicalformalismofquantummechanicsservestoassignprobabilitiestopossible measurementoutcomesonthebasisofactualoutcomes.)
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Wecall
aprobability densitybecauseitrepresentsaprobabilityperunitlength.Theprobabilityoffinding the axis,andtheverticallinesat and
intheintervalbetween
and
isgiven
bythearea betweenthegraphof itwithnarrowrectanglesofwidth
respectively.Howdowecalculatethisarea?Thetrickistocover
Theareaofthefirstrectanglefromtheleftis
theareaofthesecondis
andtheareaofthelastis
Forthesumoftheseareaswehavetheshorthandnotation
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Itisnothardtovisualizethatifweincreasethenumber ofrectanglesandatthesametimedecreasethewidth ofeachrectangle,thenthesumof theareasofallrectanglesfittingunderthegraphof between and givesusabetterandbetterapproximationtothearea andthustothe probabilityoffinding intheintervalbetween and As tendstoward0and tendstowardinfinity( ),theabovesumtendstowardthe integral
Wesometimescallthisa definiteintegraltoemphasizethatit'sjustanumber.(Asyoucanguess,therearealso indefiniteintegrals,aboutwhichmorelater.) Theuppercasedeltahasturnedintoa indicatingthat isaninfinitelysmall(or infinitesimal)width,andthesummationsymbol(theuppercasesigma)has turnedintoanelongatedSindicatingthatweareaddinginfinitelymanyinfinitesimalareas. Don'tlettheterm"infinitesimal"scareyou.Aninfinitesimalquantitymeansnothingbyitself.Itisthe combinationoftheintegrationsymbol withthe infinitesimalquantity thatmakessenseasa limit ,inwhich growsaboveanynumberhoweverlarge, (andhencetheareaofeachrectangle)shrinks belowany(positive)numberhoweversmall,whilethesumoftheareastendstowardawelldefined,finitenumber. Differentialcalculus:averybriefintroduction Anothermethodbywhichwecanobtainawelldefined,finitenumberfrominfinitesimalquantitiesistodivideonesuchquantitybyanother. Weshallassumethroughoutthatwearedealingwithwellbehavedfunctions,whichmeansthatyoucanplotthegraphofsuchafunctionwithoutliftingup yourpencil,andyoucandothesamewitheachofthefunction'sderivatives.Sowhatisafunction,andwhatisthederivativeofafunction? A function isamachinewithaninputandanoutput.Insertanumber andoutpopsthenumber Ratherconfusingly,wesometimesthinkof
notasamachinethatchurnsoutnumbersbutasthenumberchurnedoutwhen isinserted.
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The(first) derivative
of
isafunctionthattellsushowmuch in andthecorrespondingincrease
increasesas increases(startingfromagivenvalueof in
say
)inthe
limitinwhichboththeincrease tendtoward0:
(whichofcoursemaybenegative)
Theabovediagramsillustratethislimit.Theratio isthe slopeofthestraightlinethroughtheblackcircles(thatis,the oftheanglebetween thepositive axisandthestraightline,measuredcounterclockwisefromthepositive axis).As decreases,theblackcircleat slidesalong thegraphof towardstheblackcircleat andtheslopeofthestraightlinethroughthecirclesincreases.Inthelimit thestraightline becomesatangentonthegraphof Sothefirstderivative Bydifferentiating of touchingitat Theslopeofthetangenton forevery at iswhatwemeanby theslopeof at
isthefunctionthatequalstheslopeof of
To differentiateafunction istoobtainitsfirstderivative weobtainthethirdderivative andsoon.
weobtainthesecondderivative
bydifferentiating
Itisreadilyshownthatif isanumberand and arefunctionsof and
then
Aslightlymoredifficultproblemistodifferentiatetheproduct oftwofunctionsof Thinkof and astheverticalandhorizontalsidesofa rectangleofarea As increasesby theproduct increasesbythesumoftheareasofthethreewhiterectanglesinthisdiagram:
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Inother"words",
andthus
Ifwenowtakethelimitinwhich
and,hence,
and
tendtoward0,thefirsttwotermsontherighthandsidetendtoward or )thattendstoward0andanexpression(either or
What )
aboutthethirdterm?Becauseitistheproductofanexpression(either thattendstowardafinitenumber,ittendstoward0.Thebottomline:
Thisisreadilygeneralizedtoproductsof functions.Hereisaspecialcase:
Observethatthereare equaltermsbetweenthetwoequalsigns.Ifthefunction returnswhateveryouinsert,thisboilsdownto
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Nowsupposethat isafunctionof and isafunctionof causesanincreasein by Thus
Anincreasein by Inthelimit
causesanincreasein by the becomesa :
andthisinturn
Weobtained
forintegers
Obviouslyitalsoholdsfor
and
1. Showthatitalsoholdsfornegativeintegers 2. Showthat 3. Showthat alsoholdsfor
Hint:Usetheproductruletocalculate where isanaturalnumber.
Hint:Usetheproductruletocalculate
4. Showthatthisequationalsoholdsif isarationalnumber.Use
Sinceeveryrealnumberisthelimitofasequenceofrationalnumbers,wemaynowconfidentlyproceedontheassumptionthat allrealnumbers Taylorseries Awellbehavedfunctioncanbeexpandedintoapowerseries.Thismeansthatforallnonnegativeintegers therearerealnumbers suchthat
holdsfor
Letuscalculatethefirstfourderivativesusing
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Setting equaltozero,weobtain
Letuswrite
forthe thderivativeof
Wealsowrite wherethe factorial
thinkof isdefinedasequalto1for at
asthe"zerothderivative"of and
Wethus
arriveatthegeneralresult numbers for
andastheproductofallnatural
Expressingthecoefficients
intermsofthederivativesof
weobtain
Thisisthe Taylorseriesfor Aremarkableresult:ifyouknowthevalueofawellbehavedfunction at allpoints point : Besides,thereisnothingspecialabout so andthevaluesofallofitsderivatives atthesinglepoint thenyouknow
isalsodeterminedbyitsvalueandthevaluesofitsderivativesatanyother
Theexponentialfunction Wedefinethefunction byrequiringthat and Thevalueofthisfunctioniseverywhereequaltoitsslope.Differentiatingthefirstdefiningequationrepeatedlywefindthat
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Theseconddefiningequationnowtellsusthat
forall
TheresultisaparticularlysimpleTaylorseries:
Letuscheckthatawellbehavedfunctionsatisfiestheequation
ifandonlyif
Wewilldothisbyexpandingthe 'sinpowersof and andcomparecoefficents.Wehave
andusingthebinomialexpansion
wealsohavethat
Voil.
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Thefunction Sodoesthefunction Moreover, Wegatherfromthis
obviouslysatisfies
andhence
implies
thatthefunctionssatisfying thattheoneparameterfamilyoffunctions But
formaoneparameterfamily,theparameterbeingtherealnumber satisfies ,theparameterbeingtherealnumber
and
alsodefinesaoneparameterfamilyoffunctionsthatsatisfies
,theparameterbeingthepositivenumber
Conclusion:foreveryrealnumber thereisapositivenumber (andviceversa)suchthat Oneofthemostimportantnumbersis definedasthenumber forwhich thatis: :
The naturallogarithm
isdefinedastheinverseof
so
Showthat
Hint:differentiate Theindefiniteintegral Howdoweaddupinfinitelymanyinfinitesimalareas?Thisiselementaryifweknowafunction then and ofwhich isthefirstderivative.If
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Allwehavetodoistoadduptheinfinitesimalamounts and Afunction ofwhich
bywhich
increasesas increasesfrom to andthisissimplythedifferencebetween
isthefirstderivativeiscalledan integralor antiderivativeof Notethatwherever
Becausetheintegralof
isdeterminedonlyupto
aconstant,itisalsoknownas indefiniteintegralof negative. Howdowecalculatetheintegral
isnegative,theareabetweenitsgraphandthe axiscountsas
ifwedon'tknowanyantiderivativeofthe integrand
?Generallywelookupatableofintegrals.
Doingitourselvescallsforasignificantamountofskill.Asanillustration,letusdotheGaussianintegral
Forthisintegralsomeonehasdiscoveredthefollowingtrick.(Thetroubleisthatdifferentintegralsgenerallyrequiredifferenttricks.)Startwiththesquareof :
Thisisanintegraloverthe plane.Insteadofdividingthisplaneintoinfinitesimalrectangles andinfinitesimalwidth Sincetheareaofsucharingis wehavethat
wemaydivideitintoconcentricringsofradius
Nowthereisonlyoneintegrationtobedone.Nextwemakeuseofthefactthat :
hence
andweintroducethevariable
Sinceweknowthattheantiderivativeof
is
wealsoknowthat
Therefore
and
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Believeitornot,asignificantfractionoftheliteratureintheoreticalphysicsconcernsvariationsandelaborationsofthisbasic Gaussianintegral. Onevariationisobtainedbysubstituting for :
Anothervariationisobtainedbythinkingofbothsidesofthisequationasfunctionsof anddifferentiatingthemwithrespectto
Theresultis
Sineandcosine Wedefinethefunction byrequiringthat and Ifyousketchthegraphofthisfunctionusingonlythisinformation,youwillnoticethatwherever is,itsgraphcurvesdownward),andwherever ispositive,itsslopedecreasesas increases(that
isnegative,itsslopeincreasesas increases(thatis,itsgraphcurvesupward).
Differentiatingthefirstdefiningequationrepeatedlyyields
forallnaturalnumbers
Usingtheremainingdefiningequations,wefindthat
equals1fork=0,4,8,12,1fork=2,6,10,14,and0for
oddk.ThisleadstothefollowingTaylorseries:
Thefunction
issimilarlydefinedbyrequiringthat
ThisleadstotheTaylorseries
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Complexnumbers
The naturalnumbersareusedforcounting.Bysubtractingnaturalnumbersfromnaturalnumbers,wecancreate integersthatarenotnaturalnumbers.By dividingintegersbyintegers(otherthanzero)wecancreate rationalnumbersthatarenotintegers.Bytakingthesquarerootsofpositiverationalnumberswe cancreate realnumbersthatareirrational.Andbytakingthesquarerootsofnegativenumberswecancreate complexnumbersthatareimaginary. Anyimaginarynumberisarealnumbermultipliedbythepositivesquarerootof forwhichwehavethesymbol Somewhatconfusingly,the imaginarypart of is
Everycomplexnumber isthesumofarealnumber (the realpart of )andanimaginarynumber the realnumber
Becauserealnumberscanbevisualizedaspointsonaline,theyarealsoreferredtoas(orthoughtofasconstituting)therealline.Becausecomplexnumbers canbevisualizedaspointsinaplane,theyarealsoreferredtoas(orthoughtofasconstituting)thecomplexplane.Thisplanecontainstwoaxes,one horizontal(the realaxisconstitutedbytherealnumbers)andonevertical(the imaginaryaxisconstitutedbytheimaginarynumbers). Donotbemisleadbythewhimsicaltags"real"and"imaginary".Nonumberisrealinthesenseinwhich,say,applesarereal.Therealnumbersarenoless imaginaryintheordinarysensethantheimaginarynumbers,andtheimaginarynumbersarenolessrealinthemathematicalsensethantherealnumbers.If youarenotyetfamiliarwithcomplexnumbers,itisbecauseyoudon'tneedthemforcountingormeasuring.Youneedthemforcalculatingtheprobabilitiesof measurementoutcomes.
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Thisdiagramillustrates,amongotherthings,theadditionofcomplexnumbers:
Asyoucansee,addingtwocomplexnumbersisdoneinthesamewayasaddingtwovectors
and
inaplane.
Insteadofusingrectangularcoordinatesspecifyingtherealandimaginarypartsofacomplexnumber,wemayusepolarcoordinatesspecifyingthe absolute valueor modulus andthe complexargument or phase(http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ComplexNumber.html) ,whichisananglemeasuredin radians.Hereishowthesecoordinatesarerelated:
(RememberPythagoras?)
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Allyouneedtoknowtobeabletomultiplycomplexnumbersisthat
Thereis,however,aneasierwaytomultiplycomplexnumbers.Pluggingthepowerseries(orTaylorseries)for
and
intotheexpression
andrearrangingterms,weobtain
Butthisisthepower/Taylorseriesfortheexponentialfunction
with
!HenceEuler'sformula
andthisreducesmultiplyingtwocomplexnumberstomultiplyingtheirabsolutevaluesandaddingtheirphases:
Anextremelyusefuldefinitionisthecomplexconjugate bycalculatingtheproduct
of
Amongotherthings,itallowsustocalculatethe absolutesquare
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1. Showthat
2. Arguablythefivemostimportantnumbersare
Writedownanequationcontainingeachofthesenumbersjustonce.(Answer?)
Vectors(spatial)
A vectorisaquantitythathasbothamagnitudeandadirection.Vectorscanbevisualizedasarrows.Thefollowingfigureshowswhatwemeanbythe components ofavector
The sum
oftwovectorshasthecomponents
Explaintheadditionofvectorsintermsofarrows. The dotproduct oftwovectorsisthenumber
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Itsimportancearisesfromthefactthatitisinvariantunderrotations.Toseethis,wecalculate
AccordingtoPythagoras,themagnitudeof is
Ifweuseadifferentcoordinatesystem,thecomponentsof willbedifferent:
Butifthenewsystemofaxesdiffersonlybyarotationand/ortranslationoftheaxes,themagnitudeof willremainthe same:
Thesquaredmagnitudes
and
areinvariantunderrotations,andso,therefore,istheproduct
Showthatthedotproductisalsoinvariantundertranslations. Sincebya scalarwemeananumberthatisinvariantundercertaintransformations(inthiscaserotationsand/ortranslationsofthecoordinateaxes),thedot productisalsoknownas(a) scalarproduct .Letusprovethat
where istheanglebetween and Todoso,wepickacoordinatesystem inwhich Inthiscoordinatesystem with Since isascalar,andsincescalarsareinvariantunderrotationsandtranslations,theresult (whichmakesno referencetoanyparticularframe)holdsinallframesthatarerotatedand/ortranslatedrelativeto Wenowintroducethe unitvectors theyaremutuallyorthogonal: whosedirectionsaredefinedbythecoordinateaxes.Theyaresaidtoforman orthonormalbasis. Orthobecause
Normalbecausetheyareunitvectors:
And basisbecauseeveryvector canbewrittenasa linearcombinationofthesethreevectorsthatis,asuminwhicheachbasisvectorappearsonce, multipliedbythecorrespondingcomponentof (whichmaybe0):
Itisreadilyseenthat
whichiswhywehavethat
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Anotherdefinitionthatisuseful(albeitonlyina3dimensionalspace)isthe crossproduct oftwovectors:
Showthatthecrossproductisantisymmetric: Asaconsequence, Showthat Thus isperpendiculartoboth and Showthatthemagnitudeof and Since isalsothearea oftheparallelogram spannedby and Sincethecrossproductyieldsavector,itisalsoknownas vectorproduct . wecanthinkof asavectorofmagnitude perpendicularto equals where istheanglebetween and Hint:useacoordinatesysteminwhich
(Wesaveourselvesthetroubleofshowingthatthecrossproductisinvariantundertranslationsandrotationsofthecoordinateaxes,asisrequiredofavector. Letushowevernoteinpassingthatif and arepolarvectors,then isanaxialvector.Underareflection(forinstance,theinversionofacoordinate axis)anordinary(or polar)vectorisinvariant,whereasan axialvectorchangesitssign.) Hereisausefulrelationinvolvingbothscalarandvectorproducts:
Fields
Asyouwillremember,afunctionisamachinethatacceptsanumberandreturnsanumber.A fieldisafunctionthatacceptsthethreecoordinatesofapoint orthefourcoordinatesofaspacetimepointandreturnsascalar,avector,oratensor(eitherofthespatialvarietyorofthe4dimensionalspacetimevariety). Gradient Imagineacurve in3dimensionalspace.Ifwelabelthepointsofthiscurvebysomeparameter Weareinterestedinhowmuchthevalueofascalarfield much changeswilldependonhowmuchthecoordinates evidentlygivenby then canberepresentedbya3vectorfunction of tothepoint of Byhow Thechangesinthecoordinatesare
changesaswegofromapoint
of change,whicharethemselvesfunctionsof
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whilethechangein isacompoundofthreechanges,oneduetothechangein
oneduetothechangein
andoneduetothechangein :
Thefirsttermtellsusbyhowmuch changesaswegofrom to
to
thesecondtellsusbyhowmuch changesaswegofrom to thenfrom to and
andthethirdtellsusbyhowmuch changesaswegofrom to ?Let'scalculate.
Shouldn'tweaddthechangesin thatoccuraswegofirstfrom thenfrom to
Ifwetakethelimit
(aswemeantowheneverweuse
),thelasttermvanishes.Hencewemayaswelluse
inplaceof
Plugging(*)into(**),weobtain
Thinkoftheexpressioninbracketsasthedotproductoftwovectors: the gradient thevector ofthescalarfield whichistangenton whichisavectorfieldwithcomponents
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Ifwethinkof asthetimeatwhichanobjectmovingalong isat
thenthemagnitudeof
isthisobject'sspeed.
isadifferentialoperatorthatacceptsafunction Thegradientof isanotherinputoutputdevice:popin
andreturnsitsgradient andgetthedifference
Thedifferentialoperator
isalsousedinconjunctionwiththedotandcrossproducts.
Curl The curlofavectorfield isdefinedby
Toseewhatthisdefinitionisgoodfor,letuscalculatetheintegral
overaclosedcurve
(Anintegraloveracurveiscalleda lineintegral,andif
thecurveiscloseditiscalleda loopintegral.)Thisintegraliscalledthe circulationof boundaryofaninfinitesimalrectanglewithcorners Thecontributionsfromthefoursidesare,respectively,
along (oraroundthesurfaceenclosedby ).Let'sstartwiththe and
Theseaddupto
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Letusrepresentthisinfinitesimalrectangleofarea (lyinginthe plane)byavector whosemagnitude equals andwhichisperpendiculartotherectangle.(Therearetwopossibledirections.Therighthand ruleillustratedontherightindicateshowthedirectionof isrelatedtothedirectionofcirculation.)Thisallowsusto write(***)asascalar(product) Beingascalar,ititisinvariantunderrotationseitherofthecoordinate axesoroftheinfinitesimalrectangle.Henceifwecoverasurface withinfinitesimalrectanglesandadduptheir circulations,weget Observethatthecommonsidesofallneighboringrectanglesareintegratedovertwiceinoppositedirections.Their contributionscanceloutandonlythecontributionsfromtheboundary of survive. Thebottomline: Thisis Stokes'theorem.Notethatthelefthandsidedependssolelyontheboundary of So,therefore, doestherighthandside.Thevalueofthesurfaceintegralofthecurlofavectorfielddependssolelyonthe valuesofthevectorfieldattheboundaryofthesurfaceintegratedover. Ifthevectorfield isthegradientofascalarfield andif isacurvefrom to then
Thelineintegralofagradientthusisthesameforallcurveshavingidenticalendpoints.If aloopand
then is
vanishes.ByStokes'theoremitfollowsthatthecurlofagradientvanishesidentically:
Divergence The divergenceofavectorfield isdefinedby
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Toseewhat thisdefinitionisgoodfor,consideraninfinitesimalvolumeelement withsides Letuscalculatethenet(outward)fluxofa vectorfield throughthesurfaceof Therearethreepairsofoppositesides.Thenetfluxthroughthesurfacesperpendiculartothe axisis
Itisobviouswhatthenetfluxthroughtheremainingsurfaceswillbe.Thenetfluxof
outof
thusequals
Ifwefilluparegion
withinfinitesimalparallelepipedsandadduptheirnetoutwardfluxes,weget
Observethatthecommonsidesofall
neighboringparallelepipedsareintegratedovertwicewithoppositesignsthefluxoutofoneequalsthefluxintotheother.Hencetheircontributionscancel outandonlythecontributionsfromthesurface of survive.Thebottomline:
Thisis Gauss'law.Notethatthelefthandsidedependssolelyontheboundary of So,therefore,doestherighthandside.Thevalueofthevolume integralofthedivergenceofavectorfielddependssolelyonthevaluesofthevectorfieldattheboundaryoftheregionintegratedover. If isaclosedsurfaceandthustheboundary theoremwithGauss'lawwehavethat oraregionofspace then itselfhasnoboundary(symbolically, ).CombiningStokes'
Thelefthandsideisanintegralovertheboundaryofaboundary.Butaboundaryhasnoboundary!Theboundaryofaboundaryiszero: inparticular,thattherighthandsideiszero.Thusnotonlythecurlofagradientbutalsothedivergenceofacurlvanishesidentically:
Itfollows,
Someusefulidentities
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TheABCsofrelativity
SeealsotheWikibookSpecialrelativitythatcontainsanindepthtextonthissubject.
Theprincipleofrelativity
Ifweusean inertialsystem(a.k.a.inertialcoordinatesystem,inertialframeofreference,orinertialreferenceframe),thenthecomponents positionofanyfreelymovingclassicalobject("pointmass")changebyequalamounts inequaltimeintervals Evidently,if inertialframethensoisareferenceframe thatis,relativeto 1. 2. 3. 4. shifted("translated")inspacebyanydistanceand/orinanydirection, translatedintimebyanyinterval, rotatedbyanyangleaboutanyaxis,and/or movingwithanyconstantvelocity. ofthe isan
The principleofrelativitystatesthatallinertialsystemsare"createdequal":thelawsofphysicsarethesameaslongastheyareformulatedwithrespecttoan inertialframenomatterwhich.(Describingthesamephysicaleventorstateofaffairsusingdifferentinertialsystemsislikesayingthesamethingin differentlanguages.)Thefirstthreeitemstellusthatoneinertialframeisasgoodasanyotherframeaslongastheotherframediffersbyashiftofthe coordinateorigininspaceand/ortimeand/orbyarotationofthespatialcoordinateaxes.Whatmattersinphysicsare relativepositions(thepositionsof objectsrelativetoeachother), relativetimes(thetimesofeventsrelativetoeachother),and relativeorientations(theorientationsofobjectsrelativetoeach other),inasmuchastheseareunaffectedbytranslationsinspaceand/ortimeandbyrotationsofthespatialaxes.Inthephysicalworld,therearenoabsolute positions,absolutetimes,orabsoluteorientations. Thefourthitemtellsus,inaddition,thatoneinertialframeisasgoodasanyotherframeaslongasthetwoframesmovewithaconstantvelocityrelativeto eachother.Whatmattersarerelativevelocities(thevelocitiesofobjectsrelativetoeachother),inasmuchastheseareunaffectedbyacoordinate boost the switchfromaninertialframe toaframemovingwithaconstantvelocityrelativeto Inthephysicalworld,therearenoabsolutevelocitiesand,in particular, thereisnoabsoluterest . Itstandstoreason.Foronething,positionsarepropertiesofobjects,notthingsthatexistevenwhentheyarenot"occupied"orpossessed.Foranother,the positionsofobjectsaredefinedrelativetothepositionsofotherobjects.Inauniversecontainingasingleobject,thereisnopositionthatonecouldattributeto thatobject.Bythesametoken,allphysicallymeaningfultimesarethetimesofphysicalevents,andtheytooarerelativelydefined,asthetimes between events.Inauniversecontainingasingleevent,thereisnottimethatonecouldattributetothatevent.Butifpositionsandtimesarerelativelydefined,thenso arevelocities.
Thatthereisnosuchthingasabsoluteresthasnotalwaysbeenasobviousasitshouldhavebeen.Twoideaswereresponsiblefortheerroneousnotionthat 90/105
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Thatthereisnosuchthingasabsoluteresthasnotalwaysbeenasobviousasitshouldhavebeen.Twoideaswereresponsiblefortheerroneousnotionthat thereisaspecialclassofinertialframesdefining"rest"inanabsolutesense:theideathatelectromagneticeffectsaretransmittedbywaves,andtheideathat thesewavesrequireaphysicalmedium(dubbed"ether")fortheirpropagation.Ifthereweresuchamedium,onecoulddefineabsoluterestasequivalentto beingatrestwithrespecttoit.
Lorentztransformations(generalform)
Wewanttoexpressthecoordinates and frame ofaninertialframe intermsofthecoordinates and ofanotherinertial
Wewillassumethatthetwoframesmeetthefollowingconditions:
1. theirspacetimecoordinateoriginscoincide( 2. theirspaceaxesareparallel,and 3. moveswithaconstantvelocity relativeto
markthesamespacetimelocationas
),
Whatweknowatthispointisthatwhatevermoveswithaconstantvelocityin straightlinesin ontostraightlinesin Coordinatelinesof coordinatesarelinearcombinationsoftheundashedones,
willdosoin
Itfollowsthatthetransformation
maps
inparticular,willbemappedontostraightlinesin
Thistellsusthatthedashed
Wealsoknowthatthetransformationfrom Therealvaluedfunctions dependingonlyon and and
to
canonlydependon
so
and so
arefunctionsof and
Ourtaskistofindthesefunctions. Avectorfunction )So,
actuallycandependonlyon (Itwillbecomeclearinamomentwhythefactor
mustbeparallel(orantiparallel)to
anditsmagnitudemustbeafunctionof
Wecanthereforewrite
isincludedinthedefinitionof
Let'sset equalto Hence,
Thisimpliesthat
Aswearelookingatthetrajectoryofanobjectatrestin
mustbeconstant.
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Let'swritedowntheinversetransformation.Since
moveswithvelocity
relativeto
itis
Tomakelifeeasierforus,wenowchosethespaceaxessothat
Thentheabovetwo(mutuallyinverse)transformationssimplifyto
Pluggingthefirsttransformationintothesecond,weobtain
Thefirstoftheseequationstellsusthat and Thesecondtellsusthat and Combining Using toeliminate with weobtain (andtakingintoaccountthat and wegatherfromthesecondthat
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),weobtain
Sincethefirstofthelasttwoequationsimpliesthat
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tellsusthat antiparallel). With and dependingsolelyon :
must,infact,beequalto1,sincewehaveassumedthatthespaceaxesofthetwoframesaparallel(ratherthan
yields
Uponsolving
for weareleftwithexpressionsfor
and
Quiteanimprovement! Tofindtheremainingfunction transformationfrom to weconsiderathirdinertialframe whichmoveswithvelocity relativeto Combiningthe
withthetransformationfrom
to
weobtainthetransformationfrom
to
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Thedirecttransformationfrom
to
musthavethesameformasthetransformationsfrom
to
andfrom
to
,namely
where isthespeedof equal:
relativeto
Comparisonofthecoefficientsmarkedwithstarsyieldstwoexpressionsfor
whichofcoursemustbe
Itfollowsthat
andthistellsusthat
isauniversalconstant.Solvingthefirstequalityfor
weobtain
Thisallowsustocastthetransformation
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intotheform
Trumpets,please!Wehavemanagedtoreducefiveunknownfunctionstoasingleconstant.
Compositionofvelocities
Infact,thereareonlythreephysicallydistinctpossibilities.(If aboutusratherthananythingaboutthephysicalworld.) Thepossibility themagnitudeof dependsonthechoiceofunits,andthistellsussomething
yieldsthe GalileantransformationsofNewtonian("nonrelativistic")mechanics:
(Thecommonpracticeofcallingtheorieswiththistransformationlaw"nonrelativistic"isinappropriate,inasmuchastheytoosatisfytheprincipleofrelativity.) Intheremainderofthissectionweassumethat Supposethatobject moveswithspeed relativetoobject andthatthismoveswithspeed direction,whatisthespeed of relativeto ?Intheprevioussectionwefoundthat relativetoobject If and moveinthesame
andthat
Thisallowsustowrite
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Expressing intermsof
andtherespectivevelocities,weobtain
whichimpliesthat
Wemassagethisinto
divideby
andendupwith:
Thus,unless
wedon'tgetthespeedof
relativeto
bysimplyaddingthespeedof
relativeto
tothespeedof
relativeto
Propertime
Consideraninfinitesimalsegment ofaspacetimepath In ithasthecomponents in ithasthecomponents
UsingtheLorentztransformationinitsgeneralform,
itisreadilyshownthat
Weconcludethattheexpression
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isinvariantunderthistransformation.Itisalsoinvariantunderrotationsofthespatialaxes(why?)andtranslationsofthespacetimecoordinateorigin.This makes a 4scalar. Whatisthephysicalsignificanceof ? Hence isthetimeittakesto Thepropertime(orproperduration)ofa
Aclockthattravelsalong isatrestinanyframeinwhich lacksspatialcomponents.Insuchaframe, travelalong asmeasuredbyaclockthattravelsalong isthe propertime(or properduration)of finitespacetimepath accordingly,is
Aninvariantspeed
If form thenthereisauniversalconstant withthedimensionofavelocity,andwecancast intothe
Ifweplugin speed relativeto in everyinertialframe. Startingfrom andif
theninsteadoftheGalilean moveswithspeed relativeto then
wehave
Moreintriguingly,ifobject :
moveswith
moveswiththesamespeed relativeto
The speedoflight thusisan invariantspeed:whatevertravelswithitinoneinertialframe,travelswiththesamespeed
wearriveatthesameconclusion:if relativeto
travelswith relativeto
thenittravelsthedistance andthisimplies
inthetime Itfollowsthat
Therefore travelswiththesamespeed
Butthen
Aninvariantspeedalsoexistsif butinthiscaseitisinfinite:whatevertravelswithinfinitespeedin oneinertialframeittakesnotimetogetfrom oneplacetoanotherdoessoin everyinertialframe.
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TheexistenceofaninvariantspeedpreventsobjectsfrommakingUturnsinspacetime.If itobviouslytakesaninfiniteamountofenergytoreach Sinceaninfiniteamountofenergyisn'tatourdisposal,wecannotstartverticallyinaspacetimediagramandthenmakeaUturn(thatis,we cannotreach,letalone"exceed",ahorizontalslope.("Exceeding"ahorizontalslopeheremeanschangingfromapositivetoanegativeslope,orfromgoing forwardtogoingbackwardintime.) If ittakesaninfiniteamountofenergytoreacheventhefinitespeedoflight.Imagineyouspentafiniteamountoffuelacceleratingfrom0to Intheframeinwhichyouarenowatrest,yourspeedisnotawhitclosertothespeedoflight.Andthisremainstruenomatterhowmanytimesyou repeattheprocedure.Thusnofiniteamountofenergycanmakeyoureach,letalone"exceed",aslopeequalto ("Exceeding"aslopeequalto meansattainingasmallerslope.Aswewillsee,ifweweretotravelfasterthanlightinanyoneframe,thentherewouldbeframesinwhichwetravel backwardintime.)
Thecaseagainst
Inahypotheticalworldwith wecandefine intotheform (auniversalconstantwiththedimensionofavelocity),andwecancast
Ifweplugin
theninsteadoftheGalilean
wehave
Worse,ifweplugin
we
obtain :ifobject travelswithspeed relativeto andif travelswithspeed relativeto aninfinitespeedrelativeto !Andif travelswith relativeto and travelswith relativeto
(inthesamedirection),then travelswith 'sspeedrelativeto isnegative:
Ifweuseunitsinwhich componentsvia
thentheinvariantpropertimeassociatedwithaninfinitesimalpathsegmentisrelatedtothesegment'sinertial
Thisisthe4dimensionalversionofthe3scalar
whichisinvariantunderrotationsinspace.Henceif
ispositive,the
transformationsbetweeninertialsystemsarerotationsinspacetime.Iguessyounowseewhyinthishypotheticalworldthecompositionoftwopositivespeeds canbeanegativespeed. Letusconfirmthisconclusionbyderivingthecompositiontheorem(for axes. )fromtheassumptionthatthe and axesarerotatedrelativetothe and
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Thespeedofanobject of relativeto is
followingthedottedlineis Invokingthetrigonometricrelation
relativeto
thespeedof
relativeto
is
andthespeed
weconcludethat
Solvingfor
weobtain
Howcanweruleoutthe aprioripossibilitythat ?Asshowninthebodyofthebook,thestabilityofmattertobeprecise,theexistenceofstable objectsthat(i)havespatialextent(they"occupy"space)and(ii)arecomposedofafinitenumberofobjectsthatlackspatialextent(theydon't"occupy"space) restsontheexistenceofrelativepositionsthatare(a)moreorlessfuzzyand(b)independentoftime.Suchrelativepositionsaredescribedbyprobability distributionsthatare(a) inhomogeneousinspaceand(b) homogeneousintime.Theirobjectiveexistencethusrequiresanobjectivedifferencebetween spactime'stemporaldimensionanditsspatialdimensions.Thisrulesoutthepossibilitythat How?If andifweusenaturalunits,inwhich wehavethat
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Asfarasphysicsisconcerned,thedifferencebetweenthepositivesigninfrontof andthenegativesignsinfrontof differencebetweentimeandthespatialdimensionsofspacetime.If werepositive,noteventhisdifferencewouldexist.
and
isthe onlyobjective
ThecaseagainstzeroK
Andwhatarguesagainstthepossibilitythat Recallthepropagatorforafreeandstableparticle: ?
If weretovanish,wewouldhave Therewouldbenodifferencebetweeninertialtimeandpropertime,andeveryspacetimepathleading from to wouldcontributethesameamplitude tothepropagator whichwouldbehopelesslydivergentasaresult.Worse, wouldbeindependentofthedistancebetween occur,andthisrulesoutthat and Toobtainwelldefined,finiteprobabilities,cancellations("destructiveinterference")must
TheactualLorentztransformations
Intherealworld,therefore,theLorentztransformationstaketheform
Let'sexplorethemdiagrammatically,usingnaturalunits(
).Setting
wehave
Thistellsusthattheslopeofthe
axisrelativeto
theundashedframeis Setting wehave Thistellsusthattheslopeofthe axisis Thedashedaxesarethus rotatedbythesameanglein oppositedirectionsifthe axisisrotatedclockwiserelativetothe axis,thenthe axisisrotatedcounterclockwiserelativeto the axis.
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Wearriveatthesameconclusionifwethinkaboutthesynchronizationofclocksinmotion.Considerthreeclocks(1,2,3)thattravelwiththesamespeed relativeto Tosynchronizethem,wemustsendsignalsfromoneclocktoanother.Whatkindofsignals?Ifwewantoursynchronization proceduretobeindependentofthelanguageweuse(thatis,independentofthereferenceframe),thenwemustusesignalsthattravelwiththeinvariant speed Hereishowit'sdone:
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Lightsignalsaresentfromclock2(event )andarereflectedbyclocks1and3(events and respectively).Thedistancesbetweentheclocksare adjustedsothatthereflectedsignalsarrivesimultaneouslyatclock2(event ).Thisensuresthatthedistancebetweenclocks1and2equalsthedistance betweenclocks2and3,regardlessoftheinertialframeinwhichtheyarecompared.In wheretheclocksareatrest,thesignalsfrom havetraveled equaldistanceswhentheyreachthefirstandthethirdclock,respectively.Sincetheyalsohavetraveledwiththesamespeed theyhavetraveledforequal times.Thereforetheclocksmustbesynchronizedsothat and aresimultaneous.Wemayusethe worldlineofclock1asthe axisandthestraightline through and asthe axis.Itisreadilyseenthatthethreeangles intheabovediagramareequal.Fromthisandthefactthattheslopeofthe signalfrom to equals1(giventhat ),theequalityofthetwoangles follows. Simultaneitythusdependsonthelanguagetheinertialframethatweusetodescribeaphysicalsituation.Iftwoevents oneframe,thenthereareframesinwhich hapensafter aswellasframesinwhich hapensbefore Wheredoweplacetheunitpointsonthespaceandtimeaxes?Theunitpointofthetimeaxisof aswegatherfromtheversion andsatisfies equations: hasthecoordinates aresimultaneousin
andsatisfies
of(\ref{ds2}).Theunitpointofthe
axishasthecoordinates
Thelocioftheunitpointsofthespaceandtimeaxesarethehyperbolasthataredefinedbythese
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Lorentzcontraction,timedilatation
Imagineameterstickatrestin Atthetime itsendsaresituatedatthepoints and Atthetime theyaresituatedatthepoints
and whicharelessthanameterapart.Nowimagineastick(nota meterstick)atrestin whoseendpointsatthetime areOandC.In theyareameterapart,butinthestick'srestframetheyareat and andthusmorethanameterapart.Thebottomline:amovingobjectiscontracted (shortened)inthedirectioninwhichitismoving.
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Nextimaginetwoclocks,one( )atrestin andlocatedat andone( )atrestin andlocatedat At indicatesthatone secondhaspassed,whileat (whichin issimultaneouswith ), indicatesthatmorethanasecondhaspassed.Ontheotherhand,at (whichin issimultaneouswith ), indicatesthatlessthanasecondhaspassed.Thebottomline:amovingclockrunsslowerthanaclockatrest. Example:Muons( particles)arecreatednearthetopoftheatmosphere,sometenkilometersup,whenhighenergyparticlesofcosmicoriginhitthe atmosphere.Sincemuonsdecayspontaneouslyafteranaveragelifetimeof2.2microseconds,theydon'ttravelmuchfartherthan600meters.Yetmanyare foundatsealevel.Howdotheygetthatfar? Theanswerliesinthefactthatmostofthemtravelatclosetothespeedoflight.Whilefromitsownpointofview(thatis,relativetotheinertialsystemin whichitisatrest),amuononlylivesforabout2microseconds,fromourpointofview(thatis,relativetoaninertialsysteminwhichittravelsclosetothe speedoflight),itlivesmuchlongerandhasenoughtimetoreachtheEarth'ssurface.
4vectors
3vectorsaretripletsofrealnumbersthattransformunderrotationslikethecoordinates underLorentztransformationslikethecoordinatesof 4vectorsarequadrupletsofrealnumbersthattransform
Youwillrememberthatthescalarproductoftwo3vectorsisinvariantunderrotationsofthe(spatial)coordinateaxesafterall,thisiswhywecallitascalar. 104/105
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Youwillrememberthatthescalarproductoftwo3vectorsisinvariantunderrotationsofthe(spatial)coordinateaxesafterall,thisiswhywecallitascalar. Similarly,thescalarproductoftwo4vectors and definedby
isinvariantunderLorentztransformations(aswellastranslationsofthecoordinateoriginandrotationsofthespatialaxes).Todemonstratethis,weconsider thesumoftwo4vectors andcalculate
Theproducts
and
areinvariant4scalars.Butif theyareinvariantunderLorentztransformations,thensoisthescalarproduct
Oneimportant4vector,apartfrom
isthe 4velocity
whichistangentontheworldline
isa4vectorbecause
isoneandbecause
isascalar(tobeprecise,a4scalar). Thenormor"magnitude"ofa4vector isdefinedas Thusifweusenaturalunits,the4velocityisaunitvector. Retrievedfrom"http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=This_Quantum_World/print_version&oldid=2501217"

Thispagewaslastmodifiedon13March2013,at16:04. TextisavailableundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution/ShareAlikeLicenseadditionaltermsmayapply.Byusingthissite,youagreetotheTermsof UseandPrivacyPolicy.
Itisreadilyshownthatthenormof
equals (exercise!).
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10/24/13

likethelittleboxinsidethefirstblur.And over youobtaintheprobability

supposethatthisisaregionofthe(mathematical)spaceofpositionsrelativetotheproton.Ifyouintegrate offindingtheelectronin providedthattheappropriatemeasurementismade:

implythequantizationofenergyfortheemissionofelectromagneticradiation:theenergy theradiation,theconstantofproportionalitybeingPlanck'sconstant . Wecanofcourseusetheangularfrequency . Thistheoryisvalidatalltemperaturesandhelpfulinexplainingradiationbyblackbodies.

ofthechargeofboththeelectronandtheproton.ViaNewton's thelasttwo equationsyield where istheelectron'smass.Ifwetaketheprotontobe atrest,weobtain fortheelectron'skineticenergy. atadistance

Iftheelectron'spotentialenergyatinfinityissetto0,thenitspotentialenergy fromtheprotonisminustheworkrequiredtomoveitfrom toinfinity,

Wewanttoexpressthisintermsoftheelectron'sangularmomentum andmultiplyingthenumerator by andthedenominator by

neededtocompletelyremovetheelectronfromtheproton.Bohr'spredictedvaluewasfoundtobeinexcellentagreementwiththemeasuredvalue. Usingtwooftheaboveexpressionsfortheatom'senergyandsolvingfor weobtain radiusofthehydrogenatom,whichequals Forthegroundstate thisistheBohr

Einsteinhadestablishednotonlythatelectromagneticradiationoffrequency comesinquantaofenergy momentum Usingthisformulatoeliminate fromthecondition oneobtains momentum ofaclassicalelectronwithanorbitofradius InthiswaydeBrogliederivedthecondition

butalsothatthesequantacarrya But isjusttheangular thatBohrhadsimplypostulated.

Thepartialderivativeswithrespectto and are

Innonrelativisticclassicalphysicsthe kineticenergyandthe kineticmomentum ofafreeparticlearerelatedviathedispersionrelation

Bythesquareofavector wemeanthedot(orscalar)product bysuchfieldsas and

Returningtoourfictitiousworldwithonlyonespatialdimension,allowingforapotentialenergy for and

Inthreespatialdimensionsandwithbothpotentialenergy substituting for and

where isnowafunctionof and Thisisthethreedimensional Schrdingerequation.Innonrelativisticinvestigations(towhichthe Schrdingerequationisconfined)thepotentialmomentumcangenerallybeignored,whichiswhytheSchrdingerequationisoftengiventhisform:

The freeSchrdingerequation(withouteventhepotentialenergyterm)issatisfiedby (inthreedimensions) providedthat equals

solvesthe(onedimensional)Schrdingerequation.Ifnointegrationboundariesarespecified,thenweintegrateoverthe Theconversealsoholds:everysolutionisofthisform.Thefactorinfrontoftheintegralis istheFouriertransformof whichmeansthat

Heisenbergspokeof Unschrfe,theliteraltranslationofwhichis"fuzziness"ratherthan"uncertainty".Sincetherelation ofthefactthat and positionandmomentumfollowsvia momentum(asmeasuredby .Itsaysthatthefuzzinessofaposition(asmeasuredby )mustbesuchthattheirproductequalsatleast

Hencewemaywrite istheamplitudefortheoutcome ofaninfinitelyprecisemomentummeasurement. istheamplitudefortheoutcome ofaninfinitely And isthe

Themultiplicativityofsuccessivepropagatorsimpliestheadditivityoftheirphases.Togetherwiththefactthat,inthecaseofafreeparticle,thepropagator (andhenceitsphase)canonlydependonthedistancebetween Aand B,itimpliestheproportionalityofthephaseof to

(solidline)isthesumoftwodistributions(dottedlines),onefortheelectronsthatwentthrough Landonefortheelectronsthatwentthrough R. AccordingtoRuleB,theprobability ofdetectingat Danelectronlaunchedat Gisproportionalto

where isthedifference and goeswithoutsayingthatyoushouldcheckthisresult.)

1. A.Tonomura,J.Endo,T.Matsuda,T.Kawasaki,&H.Ezawa,"Demonstrationofsingleelectronbuildupofaninterferencepattern",American JournalofPhysics 57,117120,1989.

Ifinadditionthebehaviorofanelectronthatgoesthroughoneslitdoesnotdependonwhethertheotherslitisopenorshut,thenwecanobserve keeping Rshut,andwecanobserve therightdashedhump:

bykeeping Lshut.Whatweobserveif Risshutistheleftdashedhump,andwhatweobservedif Lisshutis

overcontinuousspacetimepathsfrom Ato B,andtheamplitude

(Becauseitsnormequalsthespeedoflight,thefourvelocitydependsonthreeratherthanfourindependentparameters.Togetherwith sameinformationasthefourindependentnumbers ) Thusforafreeparticle Withthis,themultiplicativityofsuccessivepropagatorstellsusthat

Itfollowsthatthereisacomplexnumber suchthat passesonaclockasittravelsfrom Ato Bvia

Ifyoucontemplatethisequationwithacalmheartandanopenmind,youwillnoticethatifthecomplexnumber theintegralbetweenthetwoequalsignswouldeitherblowup . ordropoff exponentiallyasafunctionof

Itiscustomary toinsertaminus(sotheclockactuallyturnsclockwise!): tomultiplyby (sothatwemaythinkof astherateatwhichtheclock"ticks"thenumberofcyclesitcompleteseachsecond):

todividebyPlanck'sconstant (sothat ismeasuredinenergyunitsandcalledtherestenergyoftheparticle): andtomultiplyby (sothat ismeasuredinmassunitsandcalledtheparticle'srestmass):

Thepurposeofusingthesameletter everywhereistoemphasizethatitdenotesthesamephysicalquantity,merelymeasuredindifferentunits.Ifweuse naturalunitsinwhich ratherthanconventionalones,theidentityofthevarious 'sisimmediatelyobvious.

where theamplitude isafunctionof and

Let'srecap.Weknowallaboutthemotionofastableparticleifweknowhowtocalculatetheprobability knowtheamplitude .Weknowthelatterifweknowthefunctional or Whatdoweknowabout ? (inallcircumstances).

makesitpossibletothinkoftheaction for weget:

Somethingiswrong,isn'tit?Sincetherighthandsideisnowafinitequantity,weshouldn'tusethesymbol foundisthatthereisafunction ,whichgoesbythename Lagrangefunction,suchthat

Bythesametoken, Ingeneral,thechange stationaryat ), willcauseacorrespondingchangeintheaction: Iftheactiondoesnotchange(thatis,ifitis

then isa geodesicofthegeometrydefinedby

isstationaryatthosevaluesof atwhichitsvaluedoesnotchangeif changes

pathsnear aremoreorlessequallydistributedovertheinterval comparativelysmallmagnitude.Inthelimit of Wehaveassumedthat liesin Ifitdoesnot,andif

changessufficientlyrapidly,thephasesassociatedwithpathsnear anypathin sothatinthelimit therearenosignificantcontributionsto

followsageodesicofthegeometrydefinedby Thisisreadilygeneralized.Thepropagatorforasystemwith degreesoffreedomsuchasan is particlesystemwith degreesoffreedom

dimensionalconfigurationspacetimeleadingfrom thegeometrydefinedbytheactiondifferential differentials.

Thestatementthataclassicalsystemfollowsageodesicofthegeometrydefinedbyitsaction,isoftenreferredtoasthe principleofleastaction.Amore appropriatenameis principleofstationaryaction.

isconstantalonggeodesics.(We'lldiscoverthereasonforthenegativesigninamoment.) Likewise,if doesnotdependon (thatis, )then

isconstantalonggeodesics. tellsushowmuchtheprojection of ontospacecontributesto ofasegment ofapath ontothetimeaxiscontributestotheactionof tellsushowmuchtheprojection If hasnoexplicittimedependence,thenequalintervalsofthetimeaxismakeequalcontributionsto

Ifequalintervalsofthetimecoordinateorequalintervalsofaspacecoordinateare not physicallyequivalent,thisissoforeitheroftworeasons.Thefirstis

isa4scalar.Since arethecomponentsofanother4vector. (Ifwehaddefined

Intherestframe ofafreepointmass, and UsingtheLorentztransformations (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/This_quantum_world/Appendix/Relativity/Lorentz#The_actual_Lorentz_transformations),wefindthatthisequals

aretheparticle's potentialenergyand potentialmomentum,respectively.

Thustheelectromagneticcontributiontotheactionof thisloopequalsthefluxof Remembering(i)Stokes'theoremand(ii)thedefinitionof intermsof

In(other)words,themagneticfluxthroughaloop anysurfaceboundedbytheloop). Theeffectofacirculation

thesegment relativetotheactionassociatedwiththesegment Iftheactionsofthetwosegmentsareequal,thenwe canexpectthepathofleastactionfrom to tobeastraightline.Ifonesegmenthasagreateractionthantheother,thenwecanexpectthepathof leastactionfrom to tocurveawayfromthesegmentwiththelargeraction.

asthe amplitudeoffindingourparticleat iftheappropriatemeasurementismadeattime (attime )andthenat (attime ).Integratingover weobtainthe

amplitudeoffindingtheparticleat (attime ),providedthatRuleBapplies.Thewavefunctionthussatisfiestheequation

Weobtainafurthersimplificationifweintroduce sameforboth and )Wenowhavethat

weexpandalltermstofirstorderin Towhichpowerin shouldweexpand?As increases,thephase )unless isofthesameorderas Inthislimit,higherordercontributionstotheintegral

thisdefinesthemomentumprobabilitydistribution and Thefuzzinessofthepositionandofthemomentumofaparticleassociatedwith isthereforetheminimumallowedbythe"uncertainty"relation:

Thegraphsbelowillustratehowrapidlythefuzzinessofaparticlethemassofanelectrongrows,whencomparedtoanobjectthemassofa moleculeor apeanut.Hereweseeonereason,thoughbynomeanstheonlyone,whyforallintentsandpurposes"oncesharp,alwayssharp"istrueofthepositionsof macroscopicobjects.

Becausetheprobabilitydensity Plug into

Sincethisequationcontainsnocomplexnumbersexceptpossibly noticethatif then ispositiveand

itself,ithasrealsolutions,andthesearetheonesinwhichweareinterested.Youwill curvesupwardabove anditssecondderivative then isnegativeand