“ WAVE FUNCTIONS FROM CLASSICAL PHYSICS If the potential varies continuously with position, the mathematics becomes more complicated but the physics is essentially the same. Ultimately we shafl have to solve the relevant differential equations, but to start, we can construct an approximate wave function in one dimension using de Broglie’s ideas. Consider a particle moving along the x axis with constant energy E. Let the phase of the wave at_a_given moment be (x, ‘), and compare it with its value a distance dx further along the path: io 2e™ 1 =kdx=—pd = pdx Similarly, if one waits for a time dr, E dp =o de => dt and combining these gives for the change in phase over a finite interval of path and a finite interval of time 1 6 =j[ | oorae— er] When a particle has to penetrate a region that classical physics forbids, we shall continue to use (4.44) with an imaginary value for p, just as was done in the preceding calculations. A typical example, embodying a variety of features, is shown in Fig. 4.11. In order to guess what y/ will be like for such a system, let us look at it first from a purely classical point of view. Here the forbidden region be divides the system into two separate parts. In the left part a particle will oscillate between a and b which are known as turning points. In quantum mechanics, however, the system 1s not stable because the particle has a finite probability of penetrating the barrier and leaking away. As this occurs, the wave function slowly changes its form, which is not the periodic behavior of a wave function that is an eigenfunction of H (Sec. 3.6). Thus the energies of the system are not restricted to a discrete set of eigenvalues. (See Chap. 14, where the theory of alpha decay is treated according to such a model.) Finally, on the right, the particle will accelerate away from the turning point c. If there are many particles, ||? may be taken to describe their Typical potential curve, showing bound, forbidden, and free regions.107 density in a purely classical sense. We now ask: How does this density depend on x? The answer to this question is provided by the equation of continuity (3.2), which is a basic ingredient of any theory in which something is conserved. Consider some state of the system with a definite energy E. Such a state has y proportional toe” *"*, so that ||? is constant. The analogous classical situation is therefore one for which p is independent of time, so that, in one dimension, d(ov)/dx = 0, or ‘onst where v is the velocity of motion. (This relation characterizes the jamming up of automobiles where there is an obstruction in the highway and their thinning out where passage is easier.) If a stream of particles is moving along, its velocity can be calculated from classical physics as {(2/m)[E — V(x)]}1?, so that the particle density should have the form const = Veo]? This gives the amplitude of the wave. Suppose particles are traveling toward the right (p > 0). Then the phase is Be Iwo)? = [E tn oe [u- Vea}? dx If p <0 the sign of the integral is changed. Thus in this approximation, often called WKB,* the wave function is eee Wes) = oT | [B= v(9}!2 de = i a { [E— vor Ph