Infinite square well energy eigenstates
PROFESSOR: Square well. So what is this problem? This is the problem of having a particle that can actually just move on a segment, like it can move on this eraser, just from the left to the right. It cannot escape here. So the way we represent it is the interval 0 to a on the x-axis. And there's going to be two walls, one wall to the left and one wall to the right, and no potential in between. That is, I write the potential V of x as 0, for x in between a and 0, and infinity for x less than or equal to 0, and x greater than or equal to a. So basically the particle can move from 0 to a, and nowhere else. The potential is infinity. Now, this problem, meaning that the wave function-- the particle cannot be outside the interval, means that the wave function must vanish outside the interval. And you could say, how do you know? Well, if the potential is close to infinite amount of energy to be there, so the particle cannot really be there if it's really infinite energy...