Name _________________

Solutions to Test 3
November 8, 2017
This test consists of three parts. Please note that in parts II and III, you can skip one question of
those offered. Some possibly useful formulas can be found below.

h  6.626  1034 J  s  4.136 1015 eV  s Barrier penetration: Hydrogen

  1.055 1034 J  s  6.582 1016 eV  s E E 13.6 eV  Z 2
T  16 1   e 2 L En 
V0  V0  n2
1 eV  1.602 1019 J
Reflection off a step: 2m V0  E  1D square well:

 E  E  V 
2   2 2 n2
En 
 0
 if E  V0 Harmonic Osc. 2mL2
R   E  E  V0 
  En    n  12  2   nx 
  n  x  sin 
 1 if E  V0 
n  0,1, 2, L  L 
Part I: Multiple Choice [20 points] n  1, 2,3,
For each question, choose the best answer (2 points each)

1. When a particle hits a step boundary, under what conditions is it at least partially reflected?
A) If and only if the potential is smaller than the energy
B) If and only if the potential is greater than the energy
C) If the potential step is positive, but not if it’s negative
D) If the potential step is positive or negative (not zero)
E) Never

2. If   r  is a solution to the time-independent Schrodinger equation in three dimensions with
energy E, what would be the corresponding solution to the time-dependent equation?
   
A)   r  E B) E  r  C)   r  eiEt  D)   r  e iEt  E) None of these

3. The expectation value x of the position operator for a wave function   x  tells you
what?
A) The most likely place to find the particle
B) The least likely place to find the particle
C) The position the particle actually is
D) The value where the Hamiltonian must be evaluated to get the energy
E) The average value of the position you would get if you measured it multiple times
4. In quantum mechanics, in addition to the wave function at t = 0,   x, 0  , what else must we
know to compute the wave function at later times,   x, t  ?
A) The initial position x0, but not the initial momentum p0
B) The initial momentum x0, but not the initial position p0
C) The initial position x0 AND the initial momentum p0
D) The time derivative of the wave function,   x, t  t
E) None of these; the initial wave function   x, t  is sufficient all by itself.

5. An electron in a 4p state has which of the two values?

A) l  4, n  1 B) n  4, l  1 C) m  4, n  1 D) n  4, m  1 E) l  4, m  1

6. When we had a wave impacting from the left on a step function with V0  E we found
solutions on the right that went like e  x , but we threw out e  x . Why?
A) This wave function is not normalizable, since it blows up at infinity
B) This solution would represent a wave coming in from the right, which is not what we had
C) This solution is redundant, since it is proportional to e  x
D) The wave function cannot go at all into the forbidden region, so it must be zero here
E) It is only an approximation, since this wave quickly falls to zero on the left we felt safe in
ignoring it

7. Which of the following values is impossible for the angular momentum squared L2?
A) 0 B)  2 C) 2 2 D) 6 2 E) All of these are possible

8. What is the difference between a bound state and an unbound state?

A) Bound states have E < V(0), unbound states have E > V(0)
B) Bound states have E > V(0), unbound states have E < V(0)
C) Bound states have E < V(), unbound states have E > V()
D) Bound states have E > V(), unbound states have E < V()
E) In quantum mechanics, because the position of a particle is uncertain, the distinction is
meaningless

9. What is the spin s of an electron, the quantum number determining its intrinsic angular
momentum squared?
A) ½ B) 0 C) 1 D) Some other definite value E) Different for different electrons

10. Which subshell gets filled in immediately after filling in the 3p subshell in an atom?
A) 3d B) 2d C) 4s D) 3s E) None of these
Part II: Short answer [20 points]
Choose two of the following three questions and give a short answer (2-4 sentences) (10
points each).

11. Electrons in hydrogen are described by four numbers, n, l, m and ms. What restrictions
(if any) are there on these four numbers?

The principal quantum number n is a positive integer, n  1, 2,3, . The integer l is a

non-negative integer smaller than l, so l  0,1, 2, , n  1 . The integer m is one of magnitude no
greater than l, so m  l , l  1, l  2, , l . Finally, ms takes on the values m s   12 .

12. It is easy to show that for the infinite square well, the equation  n  x   sin  nx L 
satisfies Schrodinger’s equation. Why then did we multiply it be 2 L ? In particular,
give the relevant equation that was used to find this factor (though you don’t have to do
the math).

The wave function must not only satisfy Schrodinger’s equation, it must also be

  x  dx  1 . If this is not true, say
2
normalized. This means that we need 

  x  dx  A , we can then define ˆ  x     x 
2

A . That’s where the factor of 2 L
comes from.

B
13. A single photon is sent into a half-silvered mirror, and then sent
towards two detectors, which we will assume have 100% detection
efficiency. What is the probability, for a single photon, that each of
the detectors see it? What is the probability that they both see it? A
What is the probability that neither sees it?

The photon has a 50/50 chance of going each way. It never goes
both directions, and it never goes both ways.
Part III: Calculation: [60 points] Choose three of the following four questions and perform the
indicated calculations (20 points each).

14. An electron is placed in a potential of one of three types: hydrogen-like atom, infinite
square well, or harmonic oscillator. It is found that it has evenly spaced energies, so to
go from level n to level n+1 always takes 40.8 eV of energy.
(a) Which type of potential is it: hydrogen-like atom, infinite square well, or harmonic
oscillator?

The hydrogen atom has energies proportional to n 2 , and the infinite square well has
energies proportional to n 2 . The harmonic oscillator has energies given by   n  12  , which
leads to uniform spacing of the levels, since
E  En 1  En    n  1  12     n  12     n  1  12  n  12    .

Hence it must be a harmonic oscillator.

(b) For the appropriate potential found in part (a), find the corresponding unknown: Z
for hydrogen-like, L for infinite square well, or  for the harmonic oscillator.

We have En 1  En  E   , so we have
E 40.8 eV
  16
 6.20 1016 s 1 .
 6.582 10 eV  s

(c) What is the ground state energy for this system?

The ground state energy is

E0    0  12   12   12 E  1
2  40.8 eV   20.4 eV.

(d) If you want to go from level n = 7 to n = 4, what would you emit a photon or absorb
one, and what would be the energy of that photon?

Since we are going down in energy, energy is lost, so we would emit a photon. The
energy would be
E  E7  E4    7  12     4  12   3  3  40.8 eV   122.4 eV.
15. A set 4.321010 electrons ( m  9.111031 kg  5.11105 eV/c 2 ) have energy E = 27.0 eV
and impact a barrier of height V0  73.0 eV and thickness L = 0.102 nm.
(a) How many electrons are reflected from the barrier?

This is pretty straightforward. We first calculate the damping coefficient, which is

2m V0  E  2mc 2 V0  E  2  5.11 105 eV   73.0 eV  27.0 eV 

  
 c  6.582 10 16
eV  s  2.998  108 m/s 
 3.474  1010 m 1
We then substitute it into the formula for the penetration probability, to get
E E  2 L 27.0 eV  27.0 eV 
 exp  2  3.474 10 m 1.02 10 m  
1 10
T  16 1   e  16   1  10

V0  V0  73.0 eV  73.0 eV 
 3.729e 7.09  0.00312.
We then multiply this by the number of atoms to get
NT  NT   4.32 1010  0.00312  1.35 108 .

I intended to ask for the number transmitted, but I asked for the number reflected, so we just
subtract from the total to get
NT  N  NT  4.32 1010  1.35  108  4.306 1010.

(b) The barrier is now increased until it is the right thickness so exactly one electron is
expected to make it through the barrier. What is the thickness L of the barrier
now?

The number transmitted is now NT  NT  1 , so we have T  N 1  2.315 1011 . Using

exactly the same formulas as before, we now have
E E  2 L 27.0 eV  27.0 eV  2 L
N 1  T  16 1   e  16   1  e  3.729e 2 L ,
V0  V0  73.0 eV  73.0 eV 
e 2 L  3.729 N  3.729  4.32 1010   1.6111011 ,
2 L  ln 1.6111011   25.81,
25.81 25.81
L   3.71 1010 m  0.371 nm.
2 2  3.474  10 m 
10 1
16. A particle of mass m lies in the harmonic potential, V  x   12 kx 2 . The wave function is

 30 a 5  ax  x 2  0  x  a,
  x  
 0 otherwise.

This wave function has x  12 a and x 2  72 a 2 . It has already been properly normalized.
(a) Find the expectation value of the momentum p and momentum squared p 2 .

Since the wave function is real, the expectation value of the momentum vanishes,
p  0 . For the momentum squared, we have
2
  
2
  
* d
p 2
   p  dx    
* 2 *
  dx   
2
 dx
 i x  dx 2
 op 

30 a d2 30 2 a
  2 5   ax  x 2  2  ax  x 2  dx   5   ax  x 2   a  2 x  dx
d
a 0 dx a 0 dx
a
30 2 60 2  ax 2 x 3  60 2  a 3 a 3  10 2
   
a
 5 0         2 .
2
ax x 2 dx  
a a5  2 3 0 a5  2 3  a
(b) Find the uncertainties x and p .

We have
a
a 2   12 a   a
2 2
x  x2  x  2
7
2
7  14  a 8 7
28  ,
28
2 10 2  10
p  p2  p  2
 02  .
a a

Though we weren’t asked, we can check the uncertainty principle,  x  p    5

14  12  .

(c) If you were to measure the energy of the particle, what would be the average value
you would obtain?

The average energy is the expectation value of the Hamiltonian, so we have

p2 1 1 1 10 2 k 2a 2 5 2 ka 2
E H  V  p2  k x2     .
2m 2m 2 2m a 2 2  7 2ma 2 7
17. An electron is in the state  3,1,0 of hydrogen. Some hydrogen wave functions are
written below.
(a) Write explicitly the wave function  3,1,0 as a function of r,  , and  .

The wave function is given by

4 2r  r  3 2 2r  r  r 3a
 3,1,0  R3,1Y1,0  1   e r 3a cos   1   e cos 
5  4
27 3a  6a  27  a  6a 
5

(b) Find the probability density for this wave function.

The probability density is just  * , which since it is real is just the same thing as  2 , so
we have
2
2  2 2r  r  r 3a  8r 2 
2
r  2 r 3a
 3,1,0   *
 3,1,0  1   e cos    5 
1  e cos 2 
3,1,0
 27  a
5
 6 a   729 a  6 a 

(c) Find all the places that the electron definitely is not.

This is any place that the wave function vanishes. So we just look at each factor, and ask
where it vanishes. The first factor vanishes at r = 0, which is the origin. The second factor,
1  r 6a , vanishes at r = 6a. And the final factor vanishes when cos   0 , which happens only
at   12  (keeping mind that we always choose 0     ). This corresponds to the xy-plane.
So in summary, it vanishes in the xy-plane and on a sphere of radius 6a (note that the former
criterion includes the origin, so it is unnecessary to list r = 0 separately).

2 2  2r 2r 2   r 3 a 4 2r  r   r 3a
R1,0  e  r a , R3,0  1   2 
e , R3,1  1   e
a 3
3 3a  3a 27 a 
3
27 3a 5  6a 
3 21 7
Y1,0  cos  , Y3,1   sin   5cos 2   1 ei , Y3,0   5cos3   3cos  
4 64 16