Quantum Physics For Dummies
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In quantum physics, you can apply the radial equation inside a square well (where the radius is greater than zero and less than a). For a spherical square well potential, here's what the radial equation looks like for the region 0 < r < a:

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In this region, V(r) = –V0, so you have

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Taking the V0 term over to the right gives you the following:

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And here's what dividing by r gives you:

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Then, multiplying by

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you get

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Now make the change of variable

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Using this substitution means that

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This is the spherical Bessel equation. This time,

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That makes sense, because now the particle is trapped in the square well, so its total energy is E + V0, not just E.

The solution to the preceding equation is a combination of the spherical Bessel functions

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and the spherical Neumann functions

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You can apply the same constraint here that you apply for a free particle: The wave function must be finite everywhere.

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the Bessel functions look like this:

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the Neumann functions reduce to

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So the Neumann functions diverge for small

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which makes them unacceptable for wave functions here. That means that the radial part of the wave function is just made up of spherical Bessel functions, where Al is a constant:

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The whole wave function inside the square well,

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is a product of radial and angular parts, and it looks like this:

image17.png

are the spherical harmonics.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Steven Holzner is an award-winning author of technical and science books (like Physics For Dummies and Differential Equations For Dummies). He graduated from MIT and did his PhD in physics at Cornell University, where he was on the teaching faculty for 10 years. He’s also been on the faculty of MIT. Steve also teaches corporate groups around the country.

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