LECTURES ON

QUANTUM MECHANICS - I

Author : BIKRAM KESHARI PARIDA

M.Sc. Physics (Astrophysics specialization)

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Author’s words :

This is just a note on Quantum Mechanics and it is only for personal use only.My inten-
sion is not to publish this notes.If anybody has this note , please use this for personal purpose
only.No one has permission to use it commercially.There might be some typing mistakes &
this is not a fully completed note .So with due time I will try to keep on adding more and
more information and theories.If any one find any mistake, please inform in the E-Mail ad-
dress given below.1 .For this course I have followed these books namely, Quantum physics ,
R.Eisberg, R.Resnick; Concepts of modern physics, Aurthur Beiser;Introduction
to quantum mechanics, Griffith; Quantum mechanics and application,N.Zettlei.

Introduction to Quantum physics is not an easy task.It is too much lengthy.So here I will
only give a bird’s eye view of discovery of QM and then I will proceed further starting with
intuitive derivation of Schrodinger’s equation.

Bikram Keshari Parida

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E-Mail : parida.bikram90.bkp@gmail.com
Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 SINGLE SLIT DIFFRACTION EXPERIMENT : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 LIGHT IS AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 PARTICLE NATURE OF LIGHT : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 DE BROGLIE MATTER WAVES : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Different phenomenon are going on in this Universe. Using classical physics we can find the
dynamics of any system at any instant of time beacuse classical physics is purely deterministic
in nature.Basically any (classical) dynamical system can be explained either by considering
the particles mechanism or by considering wave mechanism.Now one may ask, Is there a
situation where both particle and wave nature exist simultaneously?The answer is : Yes.
But it does not mean that we are able to observe both the nature simultaneously.In order to
understand this question ; let’s take the case of radiation, the light.From the the Blackbody
radiation concept,the energy is not in continous format , it always comes in quantized form
and each quantized packet is known as photon packet or photon.The energy of the photon
is given by E = nhν, Where , n ∈ Z + .This describes the particle nature of radiation.In
geometrical optics also all phenomenon can be explained assuming radiation as particle (pho-
ton).In optics, there are also some phenomenon like interference , diffraction, polarization
etc. can only be explained using the wave theory.Hence radiation behaves like both particles
& wave.Now the question is , at what condition radiation behaves like wave and what are the
other conditions in which the same radiation behaves like particle? To answer this question
let’s start with an experiment called single slit diffraction experiment.

1.1 SINGLE SLIT DIFFRACTION EXPERIMENT :

Figure 1.1

In the fig.1.1,a monochromatic source of light is allowed to pass through the slit.If Slit width,a
is sufficiently larger than the wavelength of the light then the photon will concentrate only
at the point O , so it looks like a bright spot and on the screen we observe diffraction pattern
only when the slit width, a, is comparable with the wavelength,λ, of the radiation (sodium
vapour light).Diffraction pattern can only be explained by wave theories.Here we observe this
pattern when a u λ.But λ ∼ Å , which is in microscopic scale.Hence we observe wave nature

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2

of radiation in microscopic scale.Why at microscopic scale radiation is behaving like wave?

Answer : The condition for the diffraction is 2 a sin nθ = nλ, where n = 1, 2, 3... .For the
1st order minima, n = 1 & if θ is very small then we can approximate as θ ' λ/2 a. When
a is very large, θ is very small, hence all the radiation concentrated around the point O &
behaves like particle.But when slit width is comparable with the wavelength of the radiation,
θ becomes very large means that radiation spreads on the whole screen.

1.2 LIGHT IS AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE :

We can prove the wave nature of the radiation by solving the Maxwell’s equations from
electrodynamics concept1 .The Maxwell’s equations in differential form are :

∇.E = ρ/0 (1.1)

∂B
∇×E=− (1.2)
∂t
∇.B = 0 (1.3)
1 ∂E
∇ × B = µ0 J + (1.4)
c2 ∂t
Equation 1.1 and 1.4 contain the source terms, hence these equationsq are known as Maxewll’s
equations having source. Similarly , equation 1.2 and 1.3 are the source free Maxwell’s
equations.We also know that the vector potential A is related with B as :

B=∇×A (1.5)

By solving these Maxwell’s equations and eqn. 1.5, we get the wave form of the E & B fields
as :
∂2E ∂J 1
∇2 E − µ0 0 2
= µ0 + ∇ρ (1.6)
∂t ∂t 0
∂ 2B
∇2 B − µ0 0 2 = −µ0 ∇ × J (1.7)
∂t
It can easily be seen that equations 1.6 and 1.7 is nothing but the some kind of wave equa-
tions.We know, radiation is electromagnetic in nature and as E & B fields behaves like waves
, we can conclude that radiation is nothing but electromagnetic wave.

1.3 PARTICLE NATURE OF LIGHT :

There are also some phenomenon which can not be explained using the wave nature of ra-
diation.These can only be explained considering light as particleS.These phenomenon are
photoelectric effect , Compton’s Scattering etc.I don’t want to discuss these two phenomenon
here.For the detail understanding you can read Aurther Beiser, Concepts of Modern
Physics.

From all of these discussion I can safely say that light is neither wave nor particle.It has
dual properties.

1
Griffith , ELECTRODYNAMICS
Jackson , Classical Electrodynamics.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 3

1.4 DE BROGLIE MATTER WAVES :

There was an interesting guy inspired by his elder brother’s research work, changed his
career from History to Physics.His name was Louis De Broglie.By knowing the dual nature
of radiation, he asked : Is this dual nature is true for matter also? And then he came up
with a theory called De Broglie’s matter waves theory.It says that the particle nature and
the wave nature of the matter are related by :
h
λ= (1.8)
p
Where , λ describes the wave nature of the matter and p describes the particle nature of the
matter. h = 6.6 × 10−34 J.s is the planck’s constant.

Let’s try to understand the eqn 1.8 more deeply.Let me start with two examples :

a) Consider a Ball of mass m = 1kg moving with velocity v = 10m/s along a

particular direction.

We want to find it’s de broglie wavelength, i.e.

6.6 × 10−34 J.s

λ = h/p = h/mv = ' 6.6 × 10−35 m ' 6.6 × 10−25 Å
1kg × 10m/s
b) Consider a electron with K.E.(K) 100 eV.
The de broglie wavelength for electron can be find as :

h 6.6 × 10−34
λ= √ =√ ' 1.2 × 10−10 m ' 1.2Å.
2me K 2 × 9.1 × 10−31 × 100 × 1.6 × 10−19
From these two examples note that the wavelength of ball is much more smaller than
that of the electron.From the previous single slit diffraction experiment, we saw that we can
wave nature of radiation only when the slit width,a, is comparable with the wavelength λ of
the radiation.Similarly in these two examples also we are able to observe wave nature only
when we allow to pass the ball & electron through the slit having width approxinately equal
to of the order of 10−25 Å & 1.2Å .But note that 10−25 Å is very small . Parctically our re-
cent technology is also not efficient to produce such grid having width ∼ 10−25 Å.Hence even
though the Ball also has wave nature , we can’t measure it.But at the time of De Broglie, slit
width of the order of ' 1Å was available.So he measured the wave properties of the electron
(which we usually consider as a particle) by doing the same diffraction experiment and got
Nobel Prize.Thanks to today’s technology that we have the grid width of the order of nuclear
dimension i.e. ∼ 10−4 Å.

Figure 1.2

Note that eqn 1.8 is instataneous in nature.That is if I change p,momentum, by changing

the particle’s velocity then the corresponding De Broglie wavelength also changes instanatu-
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 4

ously.(Like in gravity , ∇2 φ = 4πGρ & in Electrodynamics , ∇2 φ = −ρ/0 .Here if I change

the mass density or charge density then it will not even take a fraction of second to change
the potential,because these equations are instataneous in nature.).But I said that matter also
has dual nature both particle and wave.Now the question arises :What is the relation between
the velocity of the particle and velocity of the corresponding De Broglie wave? Actually there
are three posibilities : Let v be the particle velocity & vp be the velocity of the corresponding
wave, then case I : v = vp ,case II : v > vp , case III :v < vp .These three cases are shown in
the fig. 1.2. Our intuition says that case I should be true. It is because of the special theory
of relativity (Nothing can travel faster than speed of light, c = 3 × 108 m/s).That means light
also takes time to travel in space (Light takes approximately 8 min. to reach earth from
Sun).Equation 1.8 is instataneous in nature , hence case II & case III are not possible.Now
lets check whether case I is true.

Let v = particle velocity , vp = wave velocity or phase velocity. We expect v = vp .But is

it true? Let’s see !!!
γmc2
We know that , E = hν & E = γmc2 .Where γ = √ 1 2 2 .So we can find ν = .Also
1−v /c h
h
λ = h/p = .We can write the phase velocity as :
γmv

vp = νλ (1.9)
γmc2 h
= .
h γmv
c2
⇒ vp = (1.10)
v
Hence, vp 6= v. As c > v ⇒ vp > v.But in practical the velocity of the particle should be
equal to the velocity of the De Broglie wave.This implies that the nature of the De Broglie
wave is different than that of the general wave.Now, What is the exact nature of the De
Broglie wave?In order to answer this question, let me start by considering the solution of the
two waves.Let ∆ω & ∆k be the difference in the frequencies and wave vectors of the two
waves.Now I can write these two solution as :

y1 = Acos(ωt − kx) (1.11)

y2 = Acos [(ω + ∆ω)t − (k + ∆k)x] (1.12)

(Here the reason for taking the two wave solutions has something to do with Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle.I will discuss it in more detail When I teach Uncertainty principle.)

By adding these two solutions we find ,

y = y1 + y2 (1.13)
= A [cos(ωt − kx) + cos [(ω + ∆ω)t − (k + ∆k)x]] (1.14)

We know that , cosA + cosB = 2cos A+B A−B

2 .cos 2 & cos(−θ) = cosθ.Using this we can write
:
   
(2ω + ∆ω)t − (2k + ∆k)x ∆ω ∆k
y = 2Acos .cos − t+ x (1.15)
2 2 2
As ∆ω & ∆k is very small, we can approximate : 2ω + ∆ω ' 2ω & 2k + ∆k ' 2k.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 5

Hence,
 
∆ω ∆k
y = 2Acos(ωt − kx).cos t− x (1.16)
2 2

Figure 1.3

The nature of the eqn. 1.16 is given in the fig. 1.3.From the eqn. 1.16 , it is clear
that the matter waves is not like a simple wave, it is like group of waves.Now we can write
ω
phase velocity as vp = and we define the velocity of the wave group or group velocity as
k
∆ω dω
vg = ' .Now let’s check : if v = vg is correct !!
∆k dk
We know that ,
 
2πmc2 γmc2 mc2
ω = 2πν = q ∵ ν = = q  (1.17)
h 1− v2 h h 1− v2
c2 c2
&
 
2π 2πmv h h
k= = q ∵λ= = (1.18)
λ 2
h 1 − vc2 p γmv

Differenciating eqn 1.17 & eqn 1.18 w.r.t. v, We find :

dω 2πmv
= 3/2 (1.19)
dv 
v2
h 1− 2
c
&
dk 2πm
= 3/2 (1.20)
dv 
v2
h 1− 2
c

Now we can find the group velocity as

dω/dv
vg = =v (1.21)
dk/dv

Finally we found that the group velocity is equal to the particle velocity and it is not
equal to the phase velocity.It implies that the wave behaviour of the matter is like group of
waves.
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 6

1.5 HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE :