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A Fundamental Form of the Schrodinger Equation

Foundations of Physics volume 45, pages 1586–1598 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

We propose a first order equation from which the Schrodinger equation can be derived. Matrices that obey certain properties are introduced for this purpose. We start by constructing the solutions of this equation in one dimension and solve the problem of electron scattering from a step potential. We show that the sum of the spin up and down, reflection and transmission coefficients, is equal to the quantum mechanical results for this problem. Furthermore, we present a three dimensional (3D) version of the equation which can be used to derive the Schrodinger equation in 3D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA, 19426, USA

    Muhammad Adeel Ajaib

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  1. Muhammad Adeel Ajaib
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Correspondence to Muhammad Adeel Ajaib.

Appendix: Transmission and Reflection Coefficients for \(E>V_0\)

Appendix: Transmission and Reflection Coefficients for \(E>V_0\)

$$\begin{aligned} T_1= & {} \frac{(E+m)(E-{V_0})^{1/2}}{(E-{V_0}+m)E^{1/2}}\left| \frac{C}{A} \right| ^2 \nonumber \\= & {} \frac{4 \sqrt{1-\frac{{V_0}}{E}} \left( E^2+m \sqrt{E (E-{V_0})}-E \left( m+\sqrt{E (E-{V_0})}+{V_0}\right) \right) ^2}{(E+m) (E+m-{V_0}) {V_0}^2}\end{aligned}$$
(54)
$$\begin{aligned} T_2= & {} \frac{(E+m)(E-{V_0})^{1/2}}{(E-{V_0}+m)E^{1/2}}\left| \frac{C'}{A} \right| ^2 \nonumber \\= & {} \frac{4 m \sqrt{E (E-{V_0})} {V_0}^2}{(E+m) (E+m-{V_0}) \left( -2 E-2 \sqrt{E (E-{V_0})}+{V_0}\right) ^2} \end{aligned}$$
(55)
$$\begin{aligned} R_1= & {} \left| \frac{B}{A} \right| ^2 \nonumber \\= & {} \frac{(E-m)^2 {V_0}^2}{(E+m)^2 \left( -2 E-2 \sqrt{E (E-{V_0})}+{V_0}\right) ^2} \end{aligned}$$
(56)
$$\begin{aligned} R_2= & {} \left| \frac{B'}{A} \right| ^2 \nonumber \\= & {} \frac{4 E m {V_0}^2}{(E+m)^2 \left( -2 E-2 \sqrt{E (E-{V_0})}+{V_0}\right) ^2} \end{aligned}$$
(57)

1.1 Coefficients for \(E<V_0\)

$$\begin{aligned} \frac{B}{A}= & {} \frac{(-E+m) {V_0}}{(E+m) \left( 2 E-{V_0}+2 i \sqrt{E (-E+{V_0})}\right) } \end{aligned}$$
(58)
$$\begin{aligned} \frac{B'}{A}= & {} \frac{2 \sqrt{E m} {V_0}}{(E+m) \left( -2 i E+i {V_0}+2 \sqrt{E (-E+{V_0})}\right) } \end{aligned}$$
(59)
$$\begin{aligned} \frac{D}{A}= & {} \frac{2 \left( E^2+E (m-{V_0})+i \left( m \sqrt{E (-E+{V_0})}+\sqrt{E^3 (-E+{V_0})}\right) \right) }{(E+m) \left( 2 E-{V_0}+2 i \sqrt{E (-E+{V_0})}\right) } \end{aligned}$$
(60)
$$\begin{aligned} \frac{D'}{A}= & {} \frac{2 \sqrt{E m} {V_0}}{(E+m) \left( -2 i E+i {V_0}+2 \sqrt{E (-E+{V_0})}\right) } \end{aligned}$$
(61)

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Ajaib, M.A. A Fundamental Form of the Schrodinger Equation. Found Phys 45, 1586–1598 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-015-9944-z

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Keywords

  • Quantum mechanics
  • Schrodinger equation
  • Step potential problem
  • Scattering problems