Semiclassical construction of random wave functions for confined systems

Juan Diego Urbina1, Klaus Richter

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany.

Related Concept Videos

The Wave Nature of Light02:12

The Wave Nature of Light

The nature of light has been a subject of inquiry since antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton performed experiments with lenses and prisms and was able to demonstrate that white light consists of the individual colors of the rainbow combined together. Newton explained his optics findings in terms of a "corpuscular" view of light, in which light was composed of streams of extremely tiny particles traveling at high speeds according to Newton's laws of motion.
Interference and Diffraction02:18

Interference and Diffraction

Interference is a characteristic phenomenon exhibited by waves. When two electromagnetic waves interact with their peaks and troughs coinciding, a resulting wave with enhanced amplitude is produced. This is known as constructive interference. In this case, the two waves interacting are in phase with each other.
The de Broglie Wavelength02:32

The de Broglie Wavelength

In the macroscopic world, objects that are large enough to be seen by the naked eye follow the rules of classical physics. A billiard ball moving on a table will behave like a particle; it will continue traveling in a straight line unless it collides with another ball, or it is acted on by some other force, such as friction. The ball has a well-defined position and velocity or well-defined momentum, p = mv, which is defined by mass m and velocity v at any given moment. This is the typical...
Equations of Wave Motion01:02

Equations of Wave Motion

Mathematically, the motion of a wave can be studied using a wavefunction. Consider a string oscillating up and down in simple harmonic motion, having a period T. The wave on the string is sinusoidal and is translated in the positive x-direction as time progresses. Sine is a function of the angle θ, oscillating between +A and −A and repeating every 2π radians. To construct a wave model, the ratio of the angle θ and the position x is considered.
Standing Waves in a Cavity01:28

Standing Waves in a Cavity

A household microwave and lasers are examples of standing electromagnetic waves in a cavity. When two conducting metal plates are placed parallel at the nodal planes, it creates a cavity where standing waves are formed. The cavity between the two planes is analogous to a stretched string held at the points x = 0 and x = L. Here, the distance 'L' between the two planes must be an integer multiple of half of the wavelength. The wavelengths that satisfy this condition are given by:
Modes of Standing Waves: II01:04

Modes of Standing Waves: II

The starting point for expressing the modes of standing waves is understanding the boundary conditions that the waves must follow. The boundary conditions are derived from the physical understanding of how the standing waves are sustained, that is, how the vibrating particles of the medium behave at the boundaries imposed on them.
For a tube open at one end and closed at the other filled with air, the modes are such that there is always an antinode at the open end and a node at the closed end.