Paper 3, Section I, B

Quantum Mechanics
Part IB, 2017

A particle of mass mm is confined to a one-dimensional box 0xa0 \leqslant x \leqslant a. The potential V(x)V(x) is zero inside the box and infinite outside.

(a) Find the allowed energies of the particle and the normalised energy eigenstates.

(b) At time t=0t=0 the particle has wavefunction ψ0\psi_{0} that is uniform in the left half of the box i.e. ψ0(x)=2a\psi_{0}(x)=\sqrt{\frac{2}{a}} for 0<x<a/20<x<a / 2 and ψ0(x)=0\psi_{0}(x)=0 for a/2<x<aa / 2<x<a. Find the probability that a measurement of energy at time t=0t=0 will yield a value less than 52π2/(2ma2)5 \hbar^{2} \pi^{2} /\left(2 m a^{2}\right).