Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/section-c/c11/a/solution
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 Section C C11 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
For a normalized top-hat wavefunction of width centred at zero, inside the interval and zero outside. Its position distribution has and . With Fourier convention , the momentum amplitude isThe momentum density has long oscillatory tails. Consequently diverges: the ideal discontinuous top hat has infinite r.m.s. momentum spread. Its symmetric momentum density has formal principal-value mean zero, but no finite absolute first moment either. The finite-variance form is therefore not saturated and cannot be evaluated using the width of the central diffraction lobe as .
The first momentum zeros occur at , showing the inverse-width scale. Smoothing the edges sufficiently gives a finite momentum variance and restores the ordinary finite-variance uncertainty comparison; sharper edges require larger high-momentum components. It is the ideal jump, not a violation of the uncertainty principle, that causes the divergence.
New to topics? Read the docs here!
