Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-3-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2b/section-a/25/b/solution
Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 3 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2B Section A 25 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
For the reduced quantum harmonic oscillator, and the ground-state energy is . Thus the classical turning points satisfy , giving . Normalizing the wavefunction gives , because . The Born rule therefore gives the harmonic-oscillator forbidden-region probabilityThe factor two includes both tails. Using the exact complementary error function gives . A stationary real wavefunction has zero probability current, so this result describes forbidden-region occupancy, not continuous loss of the bound particle.
Normalized ground-state probability with both classically forbidden tails shaded
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