A particle starts out in the ground state of the infinite square well (on the interval 0 鈮 x 鈮 a) .Now a wall is slowly erected, slightly off center:
whererises gradually from According to the adiabatic theorem, the particle will remain in the ground state of the evolving Hamiltonian.
(a)Find (and sketch) the ground state at Hint: This should be the ground state of the infinite square well with an impenetrable barrier at . Note that the particle is confined to the (slightly) larger left 鈥渉alf鈥 of the well.
(b) Find the (transcendental) equation for the ground state energy at time t.
Answer:
(c) Setting 未 = 0 , solve graphically for z, and show that the smallest z goes from 蟺 to 2蟺 as T goes from 0 to 鈭. Explain this result.
(d) Now set 未 = 0.01 and solve numerically for z, using
(e) Find the probability that the particle is in the right 鈥渉alf鈥 of the well, as a function of z and 未. Answer:
. Evaluate this expression numerically for the T鈥檚 and 未 in part (d). Comment on your results.
(f) Plot the ground state wave function for those same values of T and 未.
Note how it gets squeezed into the left half of the well, as the barrier grows.