Momentum variance of a discontinuous top hat

ID: momentum-variance-of-a-discontinuous-top-hat

The momentum density of a top-hat wavefunction decays as an oscillatory envelope. Its momentum second moment therefore diverges, although the probability density itself is normalizable. The central diffraction-lobe width is not the standard deviation. Even the first moment requires care: the symmetric principal value is zero, but the absolute first moment diverges logarithmically.

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