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The wave function of an initially very localized free particle. In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction) is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters ψ and Ψ (lower-case and capital psi, respectively). Wave functions are complex ...
The spatial part of the full wave function solves: [19] + [()] = where the energy appears in the phase factor. This generalizes to any number of particles in any number of dimensions (in a time-independent potential): the standing wave solutions of the time-independent equation are the states with definite energy, instead of a probability ...
A so-called eigenmode is a solution that oscillates in time with a well-defined constant angular frequency ω, so that the temporal part of the wave function takes the form e −iωt = cos(ωt) − i sin(ωt), and the amplitude is a function f(x) of the spatial variable x, giving a separation of variables for the wave function: (,) = ().
In quantum mechanics, the position of the ball is represented by a wave (called the wave function), with the real part shown in blue and the imaginary part shown in red. Some of the trajectories (such as C, D, E, and F) are standing waves (or "stationary states"). Each standing-wave frequency is proportional to a possible energy level of
where is position, is the wave function, is a periodic function with the same periodicity as the crystal, the wave vector is the crystal momentum vector, is Euler's number, and is the imaginary unit. Functions of this form are known as Bloch functions or Bloch states , and serve as a suitable basis for the wave functions or states of electrons ...
Below, a number of drum membrane vibration modes and the respective wave functions of the hydrogen atom are shown. A correspondence can be considered where the wave functions of a vibrating drum head are for a two-coordinate system ψ(r, θ) and the wave functions for a vibrating sphere are three-coordinate ψ(r, θ, φ).
The term "wave function" is typically used for a different mathematical representation of the quantum state, one that uses spatial coordinates also called the "position representation". [8]: 324 When the wave function representation is used, the "reduction" is called "wave function collapse".
One is led to recognize that a wave function 'encompassing the whole universe' is an idealization, formalistically perhaps a convenient idealization, but an idealization so strained that it can be used only in part in any forecast of correlations that makes physical sense.