Quantum virial identity from scaling

For a normalized dilation ${\psi }_{\lambda }(x)={\lambda }^{d/2}\psi (\lambda x)$ and a homogeneous potential of degree $-n$, the energy is ${\lambda }^{2}T+{\lambda }^{n}V$. Stationarity at an eigenstate gives $2T+nV=0$.

For an attractive potential $-\alpha /|x{|}^n$ with $n>2$, dilations make the negative potential energy grow faster than kinetic energy, sending the Rayleigh quotient to minus infinity.