 Solution

Use an expansion for the eigenstate continuing the nondegenerate level, with intermediate normalization $⟨{\psi }_0,\psi (ϵ)⟩=1$:Insert these expressions into the eigenvalue equation. At first order,Taking the inner product with ${\psi }_0$ eliminates the left side by self-adjointness. ThusFor $j\ne 0$, projection onto ${\psi }_j$ instead givesAt second order, projecting the eigenvalue equation onto ${\psi }_0$ gives $E^{(2)}=⟨{\psi }_0,H^{\prime }\chi ⟩$. Expand $\chi$ in the orthonormal energy basis and use self-adjointness of $H^{\prime }$:Nondegeneracy ensures the denominators for this level do not vanish; convergence and validity of the expansion are among the assumed perturbation-theory hypotheses.

For the cosine perturbation of the ground level in a one-dimensional box, write $u=\pi x/a$. The product-to-sum identity givesso, with the given common normalization of the sine eigenfunctions,The diagonal matrix element is $-ϵ/2$, and the only nonzero off-diagonal matrix element out of the ground state is $⟨{\varphi }_3,V{\varphi }_1⟩=ϵ/2$. Let $E_{\mathrm{box}}={\pi }^2{\hslash }^2/(2m{a}^2)$. Since ${\mathcal{E}}_3=9E_{\mathrm{box}}$, the ground energy isThe second-order term is negative, as expected for a nondegenerate ground level: every excited-quantum state denominator is negative. The first-order shift is also negative for positive $ϵ$, because the ground-quantum state density is largest near the center, where this perturbing potential is negative.