Expand the state in the energy eigenstates of as
Substitution into the Time-dependent Schrodinger equation and projection onto gives the exact interaction picture equations
In first-order time-dependent perturbation theory, put on the right-hand side and integrate from to :
For a uniform electric field, the electric-dipole interaction is up to an irrelevant overall sign. The supplied hydrogen atom wavefunctions give
For , the time integral is
The long-time transition fraction is consequently
Both and have even parity, whereas is odd, so the electric-dipole selection rule gives . Thus the requested fraction in is zero.
The Time-dependent Schrodinger equation for the one-dimensional Quantum harmonic oscillator is
A stationary state has , so cancellation of the common time factor gives
Set
The equation becomes
With ,
and hence obeys the Hermite differential equation
If is monic of degree , the coefficient of in this equation is . It must vanish, so
Writing gives the recurrence
The coefficient of first gives , and the recurrence preserves parity. If is even, every odd coefficient vanishes, so is an even function. The Gaussian factor is also even; therefore the stationary state has even parity.
In the Parity basis of a one-dimensional S-matrix, parity acts as . Parity invariance requires
and therefore
Independently, unitarity gives
Combining parity and unitarity leaves two phases,
For the symmetric double-delta potential, consider the odd channel on . Choose the asymptotic convention
and write for ; the sine enforces odd parity at the origin. Continuity and the delta potential derivative jump at give
Eliminating yields the Odd-parity S-matrix of a symmetric double-delta potential
Using rewrites this as the requested expression
For real , the two factors in the ratio are complex conjugates, directly confirming .
A bound state occurs at a pole , . Setting the denominator to zero gives
or
For , write . The right-hand side is increasing and concave, starts at zero with slope , and approaches , whereas the left-hand side is the straight line . A positive intersection therefore exists exactly when
This is the odd bound state of a symmetric double-delta potential; equality is its zero-energy threshold.
For , analytically continue the same pole equation into the lower half of the complex -plane. Put
It becomes
When , the lowest odd mode lies near the hard-wall value . Writing and expanding gives
so
In particular, the odd resonance of a strongly repulsive symmetric double-delta potential has
The negative imaginary part identifies a decaying scattering resonance. If
then, to leading nonzero order,
Its time-dependent amplitude is proportional to
so its survival probability decays as and its lifetime is
Physically, this is the lowest odd standing wave trapped for a long time between two strong repulsive barriers and leaking out by quantum tunnelling.
Using the zero test from part (i), define by primitive recursion
Since and , the values alternate:
Thus is the required parity function and, like , is primitive recursive without minimization.
Since , the perturbation is
Every diagonal matrix element vanishes by parity, so all first-order shifts are zero. For the ground state,
The second-order shift is therefore
Thus
For every nonzero real , the cubic potential is unbounded below on one side, so there are no genuine bound-state eigenvalues continuously connected to the harmonic levels. The formal perturbation series does not converge; it is at best asymptotic to resonance energies.
The parity of a wavefunction is its eigenvalue under spatial reflection: for even parity and for odd parity. If , the Hamiltonian commutes with reflection, so its energy eigenspaces admit a parity eigenbasis. In particular, every nondegenerate bound-state energy eigenfunction has definite parity; within a degenerate scattering eigenspace one must choose the even and odd linear combinations.
To first order in , time-dependent perturbation theory replaces the state on the right-hand side by its unperturbed value . The bound state is even, while the position operator is odd. The parity selection rule therefore gives
so and, with no initial continuum component,
Projection onto the odd state gives
Writing and integrating from zero to yields
Write . Parity reverses the spatial coordinates and must exchange the two chiral Weyl spinors. One convenient choice is
The identities and exchange the two kinetic terms after . The mass bilinear maps to its complex conjugate , so the two mass terms are exchanged and the action is invariant. More generally, independent unit phases may multiply the two transformations provided .
Apply parity to the mixed anticommutator. The transformed left-hand side is
because . The Pauli-matrix identity represented by this product leaves the temporal matrix unchanged and reverses the three spatial matrices, so it equals
But a parity transformation acts on momentum as and . This is exactly the parity transform of
so is consistent with the stated transformation law. The arbitrary intrinsic phase cancels.
With matrix-valued fields, charge conjugation acts as
Under parity, is even and is odd:
Consequently is odd and is even. Under time-reversal symmetry, which is antiunitary, is even and is odd after ; hence is even and is odd. Equivalently, the non-Abelian electric and magnetic fields transform as
Pseudoscalar meson 2026-10-06
A meson with zero spin angular momentum and negative parity. The pion and kaon are familiar examples. Between two pseudoscalar mesons, parity conservation in the strong interaction forces the axial current matrix element to vanish, while the vector current has pseudoscalar-to-pseudoscalar form factors. The weak decay as a whole need not conserve parity.
The symmetric double-delta potential
separates into even and odd parity channels. At either interaction, the wavefunction is continuous and its derivative has the jump