1 Motion or Chances of Detection?

Scientific concepts are only means to explain what we observe. This is crucial for understanding the

purpose of any study of any mechanics, even the classical in which concepts like force and energy

are used to explain observations like position, displacement, velocity and acceleration. And

observation is what we detect either by our eyes or by our machines. Thus, rather than asking

science to tell us how things move, we should first understand what is detected and then should be

mentally ready to accept any explanation of it. (Actual elements of scientific inquiry are only

observation, postulates, calculations and prediction.) Considering position, it should be kept in mind

that in practice we do not detect the exact real number which classical mechanics assigns to a

position. First, any apparatus measuring position necessary has a least count whereas a real number

has none. Moreover, for repeated measurements it is not essential that each measurement gives

exactly the same number; there is thus an element of uncertainty. A one-to-one correspondence

between position and real numbers of mathematics assumes the availability of a measuring

apparatus that has zero least count and shows the same outcome every time. Science cannot

provide any such apparatus and thus we should get rid any concept of such perfect measure ment.

This is in principle. But in practice when describing motion of macroscopic bodies (usually of daily

life, for which any relevant quantity having the units of energy-time or angular momentum is much

greater than plank’s constant ~) our physical predictions are not disturbed at all if we assume such

perfect measurements and thus for daily life it is simpler to get the same physical predictions

through the classical mechanics. But logically we should avoid any assumption of a perfect

measurement and that is what quantum mechanics does. Quantum mechanics does not provide
answers to the untestable questions like ”where a body will be at a particular time=a real number”.

It properly points out that only those questions can have answers which first specify how will we do

the measurement. That is, the job of quantum is to provide only the practically required prediction

of what will result from a specified detection; more precisely, quantum mechanics only tells what

are chances of given detection in a given interval. (As a detection is made through a detector that

detects within an interval.) This may be taken as a limitation of quantum mechanics but a proper

philosophy of science tells that it is saving science from spending (or wasting) time and efforts on

answering untestable questions. The result of quantum mechanics includes prediction where the

probability is zero or where the particle cannot be detected. One may like to infer from this where

the particle will not be present at a certain time and thus to the interval in which particle will be

(detected) and connect quantum mechanics to the usual meaning of the phrase ”study of motion.”

Role of variables in CM and QM: In quantum mechanics, position is not the dependent variable and

can thus be an independent variable here. The indication of the discussion so far is that the

dependent quantity in quantum mechanics is probability. Actually this quantity is a wave function

which gives the position dependence of the probability density. This should not be surprising

because commonly the position dependence in physics is obtained through solving a differential

equation and it is hard to make sure that the solution of a differential equation is directly non-

negative. (Solutions of all the differential equations you studied can be negative, at least of the

differential equations used physics. For example, solutions of classical wave equation can be

negative. Solutions of Newton’s second law and Maxwell’s equations are vectors whose components

can be negative.) In quantum mechanics, the solutions (called wave functions) of the corresponding
differential equations are in general complex numbers and thus are not always positive, and the

probability density is taken to be equal to the modulus square of the wave function and thus

probability density can not be negative by definition. To understand how probability is obtained

from probability density, it is good to first understand how mass is obtained from a given mass

density. For a constant mass density, we get the mass by simply multiplying the mass density with

volume. But if the mass density is variable, m = ρl is replaced by m = R ρdl. Similarly, once we know

the probability density we can simply integrate it over the positions occupied by a detector to get

the probability of detection in that detector. Thus, although equations of quantum mechanics

themselves provide solutions for continuous points, this definite integral over an interval of a chosen

detector gives us accordingly the realistic prediction. It is to be noted that if the set of possibilities is

a finite set (like electric charge on an elementary particle), quantum mechanics directly gives

probability of detection each of discrete value without any need of the above mentioned definite

integral. The relation between wave function and probability density It is mentioned above that the

wave function Ψ(x, y, z, t) can be complex while probability density ρ(x, y, z, t) has to be non-

negative. Mathematically, there can be only one way of getting a real non-negative number from

complex numbers: multiplying a complex number by its complex conjugate and this is what quantum

mechanics assumes i.e. ρ(x, y, z, t) = Ψ(x, y, z, t)Ψ∗ (x, y, z, t) = |ψ(r,t)| 2 (1.1) The time dependence

here indicates that quantum mechanics is also practically a ”study of motion”. This choice also

achieves conformity with the quantum interpretation of electrodynamics. In classical mechanics the

sum of squares of electric and magnetic fields i.e. E2 + B2 is taken to be proportional to the energy

density of the e.m. field. In quantum interpretation E(r,t) and B(r,t) are taken to be photon wave
functions and, as in eq.(1.1), E2 + B2 is taken to be proportional to the probability density of

detecting a photon. For a large number of photon detections, such as in daily life light wave

phenomena, the probability density becomes proportional to the number density of photon

detections. (For a comparison, note that for a large number of a coin throws the number of heads

and tails appearing becomes equal verifying the prediction that the probability of a head and tail is

same.) Quantum mechanics assumes that (in a light of a given frequency) the energy of all photons is

same=plank constant*frequency= hv. Thus the net result is that for a large number of photon

detections the probability density E2 + B2 becomes the energy density of light rays and this is what

we observe in our daily lives. Examples of Wave Functions Examples of wave functions are the

electromagnetic wave functions E(r,t) and B(r,t) which are obtained by solving the Maxwell’s

equations. These may or may not be of the form E0 exp i(k.r−ω t) or B0 exp i(k.r − ω t) (Why E0 and

B0 have to be 3-vectors?). For this complex form, and not trigonometric from, the probability density

is same for all the positions and this is preferred because for a wave of fixed frequency and wave

length (called a plane wave) it is not possible to prefer one position over otherfor a higher

probability density. Thus for each particle, photon, electron or a cricket ball, there is a wave function

and in that sense every particle is a wave. But the use of this wave is a different to that in classical

wave theory: The square of a classical wave gives the energy density that the classical wave transfers

to a detector, but for quantum waves the modulus square of the corresponding wave function gives

the probability density of detection. Like a classical wave, a quantum wave also expands. A part of a

quantum wave gives part of the probability but the quantities which are measured by detectors (like

the above mentioned energy and linear momentum of a single photon) are not divided into parts.
Thus in quantum mechanics each instance of a detection is a particle-like and as a quantum wave

spreads it is the probability that is divided not the detected energy, momentum or charge. Some

people like to describe this situation, along with the above mentioned proportionality of the particle-

like and the wave-like quantities, as wave-particle duality. Normalization: . According to an axiom of

probability (may see for example Introductory mathematical statistics by Erwin Kreyszig, John Wiley

& Sons (1970)), the total probability (here of detecting a particle anywhere in space) is equal to one.

As the probability is the integral of probability density ρ(r,t) = |ψ(r,t)| 2 and for the whole space we

have to integrate from −∞ to +∞, in the one-dimensional case we have Z∞ −∞ dx |ψ(x,t)| 2 = 1

which, in general, becomes Def initon : Normalization is the condition Z d 3 r |ψ(r,t)| 2 = 1. (1.2)

Thus the total area under the graph of |ψ(x,t)| 2 should be one. If the width of the wave function

graph is infinite, its height= area width = 1 width would be zero and hence such a particle would not

be detectable. For a detetectable, or physical, particle, a portion with a non-zero height of

probability density |ψ(x,t)| 2 should have an finite width. In other words, the probability density and

hence the wave function ψ(x,t) should be localized. As a plane wave N exp i(k.r − ω t) is not localized,

because it has no preferred space or time interval, its normalization constant is zero. Exercise : Prove

that the normalization constant N for a plane wave N exp i(k.r− ω t) is zero. (Note the phrase

”normalization constant”. We have to choose the numerical value of a constant coefficient in each

example of a wave function so as to satisfy eq.(1.2).) Thus, precisely speaking, a quantum plane

wave is not detectable and hence is unphysical. A statement of the Wave-Particle Duality: Above we

wrote that ”every particle is a wave”. A more detailed statement of the wave-particle duality is that

”every particle is a localized wave whose modulus square is equal to the probability density of a
particle-like full detection of that particle.” For measuring probabilities, we have to repeat the

observation a large number of times. Pure logically, this repetition can be sequential or

simultaneous; in the first case repeated measurements are made of the same system and in the

second case we have to do experiment with a large number of systems at once. For reasons to be

described later in the course, only simultaneous repetition is allowed in quantum mechanics. This is

called ”wave function collapse” to the observed outcome only for the next measurement on the

same system. You can understand this as impossibility of ”thoroughly mixing” in quantum

mechanics. Def initon : Ensemble (also statistical ensemble) is an idealization consisting of a large

number of virtual copies of a system, considered all at once, each of which represents a possible

state that the real system might be in. (Definition adopted from Wikipaedia.) Practically, an example

of ensemble can be the collection of a large number of atoms in a crystal that may serve to test any

quantum prediction of probability of atoms absorbing light from a beam and getting excited.