Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/ib/paper-1/9f/solution

For an incident particle from the left, take and , and define
The time-independent Schrödinger equation gives an incident plus reflected plane wave on the left and an outgoing transmitted plane wave on the right:
Continuity of the wavefunction and its derivative at a finite potential jump yields and . Hence and . The incident and reflected probability currents have equal wave-number magnitude, so
As a check, the transmitted current fraction is , and the two probabilities sum to one.
For a positive step, makes , so . For a negative step with fixed positive incident energy, makes , so again . The latter is quantum reflection from an increasingly large wave-number mismatch, even though the step is downward.

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