Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-1/section-b/b7/c/solution
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 1 Section B B7 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The infinite wall imposes , and the wavefunction vanishes for . The even full-oscillator ground state fails this boundary condition; the lowest admissible state is the positive-half restriction of the odd first excited state. Multiplying by restores normalization because half its probability originally lay on either side.
With , the half-harmonic oscillator ground state isIt rises from zero at the wall, reaches its wave-amplitude maximum at , and decays to zero as . It is positive throughout the interior of the allowed region, with no interior node, as required for its ground state. The wall need not make the derivative continuous with the forbidden half-line.
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