NAME : SAIF ULAH AHMAD BHAT

ROLL NO. 10-PHY-2020

COURSE : MSC PHYICS(2nd sem )

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POSTULATES OF
QUANTUM MECHENICS

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1 Newton initially thought that light is made of particles ,
since it reflects back from the mirror- CORPUSCULAR
Theory of Light.
2 Quantum Mechanics is the detailed description of the
behaviour of matter and light and all the phenomena
occurring at the sub atomic scale.
3 Towards the beginning of 20th century , many
experiments manifested wave character of light.
4 Light in certain experiments show particle character and
in some others show wave character-wave particle
duality .

5 Other sub atomic particles such as Electrons show

similar duality.

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6 The gradual accumulation of information about atomic
systems produced curiosity and confusion.
7 To a significant extent the confusion was removed in
mid 1920s by Schrodinger ,Heisenberg and born
obtained a consistent description of matter at small
scale.
8The most promising idea of sustaining a quantum world
was based on probabilistic interpretation .
9 The second pillar was the uncertainty principal related
to the measurement which save a considerable amount of
experiments done on sub atomic particles

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 Time-dependent Schrödinger Equation

Without potential E=T

With potential E=T+V

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Postulate 1:
The state of a quantum mechanical system is completely specified by
a wave function ψ (r,t) that depends on the coordinates of the
particles (r) and time t. These functions are called wave functions or
state functions.
For 2 particle system:

Wave function contains all the information about a system.

wave function  classical trajectory
(Quantum mechanics)
   ( x1 , y(Newtonian mechanics)
1 , z1 , x2 , y 2 , z 2 , t )

Meaning of wave function:

  d
 *

P(r) = |ψ|2

=> the probability that the particle can be found at a particular point
x and a particular time t. (Born’s / Copenhagen interpretation)

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1. Positivity:
P(r) >= 0

The sign/phase of a wavefunction has no direct physical

significance:
The positive and negative regions of this wavefunction
both correspond to the same probability distribution.

  d  1
 *
2. Normalization:
all _ space

i.e. the probability of finding the particle in the universe is

1

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 3. Continuity

4. Continuity of
first
derivatives

5. (Complex)

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To every physical property,
observable in classical
mechanics, there corresponds a
linear, hermitian operator in
quantum mechanics.

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 Hermitian operators have two properties
that forms the basis of quantum mechanics
(i) Eigen value of a Hermitian operator are real.
(ii) Eigen functions of Hermitian operators are
orthogonal to each other or can be made
orthogonal by taking linear combinations of
them.
ˆ satisfies
A hermitian operator A

  ˆ dx   A
*
A  ˆ  dx  *

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 Some important operators

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In any measurement of the observable
associated with A the operator , the only
values that will ever be observed are the
eigenvalues ‘a’ which satisfy the eigenvalue
equation:

This is the postulate that the values of

dynamical variables are quantized in
quantum mechanics.

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For a system in a state described by a
normalized wave function , the average
or expectation value of the observable
corresponding to A is given by:

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The wave function of a system
evolves in time in accordance with
the time dependent Schrödinger
equation:

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 1) Properties of any system are completely by

the wave function, (r,t).

 2) The wave function and its derivatives are

continuous, finite, unique and in general

complex
 3) Any measurable/observable quantity is

obtained as a mean value

 4) |(r,t)|2 is probability
 5)  satisfies Schrödinger equation

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 THANK YOU

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